Wake DA rules on NC trooper who fatally shot a man after crash in Raleigh
A North Carolina state trooper won’t face charges for shooting and killing a man after a high-speed chase that ended in a crash last summer.
Troopers with the N.C. State Highway Patrol exchanged gunfire with a Fayetteville man Sept. 1 after a chase in Johnston County ended with a crash in a neighborhood near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Raleigh.
Jaylen Routt, 22, allegedly fled from officers and then fired a gun at them before he was fatally shot by Trooper Harrison Nazal off of Exit 299 on Interstate 40.
Nazal won’t face criminal charges because he acted lawfully in using deadly force, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said Tuesday evening.
Nazal was placed on administrative duty during a review of the shooting by the State Bureau of Investigation, which is routine procedure when a law enforcement officer kills someone.
“North Carolina law gives law enforcement authority to use deadly force in protecting themselves and others from a threat of being killed,” Freeman wrote in her summary of the case. “The evidence supports a finding that officers on scene had a reasonable belief that they were in imminent danger of deadly harm. A review of all the available evidence in this case leads to a conclusion that the use of force was lawful and that a prosecution is not sustainable.”
According to a review of evidence that included troopers’ dashboard camera footage, radio traffic and witness testimony of nearby residents, Routt did not heed troopers’ demands to exit his car when his vehicle came to a stop.
Instead, Routt attempted to flee the scene in the gray Nissan Rogue that he had been driving at 100 mph in Johnston County at around 1 a.m. that night, which triggered the chase.
Routt’s car got stuck when he tried to reverse in the direction of the troopers. Nazal broke the glass out of one Routt’s windows with a flashlight and officers tried to use a taser through the window to subdue Routt, according to Freeman.
Routt then raised a gun toward a Johnston County sheriff’s deputy at the scene and fired. The deputy fell to the ground and yelled “Gun!,” though he and other officers were not injured.
Nazal then opened fire, “emptying his magazine” at the man in the car. A Glock 22 .40 caliber handgun was found in the car.
Routt, died from his injuries at a WakeMed hospital. He had six gunshot wounds, according to preliminary autopsy results.
The City-County Bureau of Investigation processed evidence from the scene and determined that a shell casing in Routt’s vehicle matched the Glock firearm.
Routt was wanted in Cumbeland County on charges of first-degree murder in the January 2021 shooting of a minor, according to WRAL.
