6 NC law enforcement officers have been shot, 2 fatally, in last three weeks

The story and headline have been updated to reflect the number of law enforcement officers shot in the last three weeks, not three months.

Six North Carolina law enforcement officers have been shot, two of them fatally, in the line of duty this summer.

On Friday, N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein condemned the violence against law enforcement officers and extended his condolences.

“Early this morning, a Wake County deputy was killed in the line of duty,” Stein said in a statement. “This comes only 10 days after the murder of Wayne County Deputy Sgt. Matthew Fishman. Four other North Carolina deputies have been shot doing their jobs in the last three weeks alone, but are thankfully still alive.”

“Officers put their lives on the line to protect our communities — we must do everything in our power to keep them safe,” Stein said. “I thank the many public-spirited officers who are serving and protecting the people of North Carolina all over the state.”

‘General disregard for authority’

Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood, who was recently elected president of the N.C. Sheriffs’ Association, said his concerns go beyond the recent shootings of North Carolina deputies.

“It’s a general disregard for authority of any kind,” he said. “It is as if the idea that the law enforcement that come to work every day, that are trying to do the right thing are being somehow painted as the enemy and there is a disregard for their lives,” Blackwood said. “It’s not just the killings, but the killings have accelerated in such a way that you have got to question the timing of it all.’

Today people are emboldened in a way that Blackwood said he hasn’t seen in his 42 years in law enforcement.

Defendants curse at judges and run out of courtrooms after convictions, motorists are physically challenging officers for pulling them over for an expired tag, and people are getting shot after minor conflicts at the gas pump and a drive-through window, he said.

“I don’t know whether fuses are short because of COVID, or what it is, there has been a complete breakdown in societal norms and respect for authority,” he said.

Blackwood said the shift coincides with calls to defund and reimagine law enforcement, which escalated after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd in 2020, along with other fatal encounters between police and Black people.

The officers in Minneapolis were charged and convicted, which Blackwood said is what should happen in such situations. A handful of instances is too many, he said, but it doesn’t mean that it is happening everywhere, he said.

“There was a big hue and cry among the society to fix law enforcement, when law enforcement may not have been broken to begin with,” Blackwood said.

“I can’t help but believe that all these committees that have come together [to] try to figure out a way to protect the folks who are committing the violent crimes and give them a second chance, that we have emboldened the criminal element to believe that they are not held accountable any longer, and it is that lack of accountability that is leading us down this road of discontent,” Blackwood said. “And I don’t think it is getting better.”

Still answering the calls

Wake County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Eric Curry said, despite the challenging environment, deputies are still answering calls.

“This is the nature of the business. Every deputy understands that each call can be either routine or a potentially fatal interaction with a person [whose] only intention is to harm a law enforcement officer,” he said.

Here are the shootings in the past three weeks.

Sampson County

The first shooting seriously wounded Caitlin Emanuel, a Sampson County sheriff’s deputy, on July 24 while responding to a report of a stolen car.

Emanuel was shot on Hayne Stretch Road outside of Roseboro after 2 a.m. that Saturday, The News & Observer previously reported. While responding to the report, Emanuel found two men near the road along with the stolen car and called for back-up.

The responding deputy found Emanuel wounded at the scene.

Michael A. Walthall Jr., of Pennsylvania, was arrested by the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office about 4:45 a.m. on the morning of the shooting. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a law enforcement officer, larceny of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon and driving while impaired.

His first court appearance is in Clinton on Aug. 19.

Wayne County

Three Wayne County sheriff’s deputies were shot Aug. 1 in an incident that left Sgt. Matthew Fishman dead.

The two other officers were treated for injuries and released from the hospital Aug. 3, as reported by The Charlotte Observer.

Fishman, 38, was killed when the deputies responded to a home on Arrington Bridge Road in Dudley, a town about 60 miles southeast of Raleigh.

The deputies arrived about 10:30 a.m. to serve an involuntary commitment order when a man inside began shooting at them, Wayne County officials reported.

Jourdan Hamilton, 23, then barricaded himself inside the home. A SWAT team entered the residence around 8 p.m. and found the suspect dead from a self-inflicted gunshot would, according to officials.

Fishman was buried Tuesday in Mount Olive. He is survived by his wife Sarah, and two children, ABC11 reported.

Caswell County

On Wednesday a Caswell County sheriff’s deputy suffered serious injuries when he was shot in Semora.

Aaron Tyndall was serving a domestic violence protective order with another deputy Aug. 10 when he was shot multiple times by a man who barricaded himself inside the home for several hours afterward, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The suspect, identified as Kevin DeSilva, surrendered to law enforcement on the day of the shooting around 4 p.m.

Wake County

Early Friday morning, Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker announced the death of a deputy shot in the eastern part of the county.

The shooting occurred around 11 p.m. Thursday near a gas station on Auburn Knightdale Road and Battle Bridge Road.

No details have been released about the deputy, a possible suspect or the circumstances that led to the shooting.

The last Wake deputy shot in the line of duty was Sgt. Ronald Waller in June 2021. He suffered severe injuries when he was shot with an AK-47 assault rifle while serving an eviction notice on a tenant at a Raleigh apartment complex.