Until the last year, the use of deadly force in Anson County was almost unheard of.

Capt. Freddie Paxton has been with the Anson County Sheriff’s Office for 21 years and only remembers one case outside of the three from 2016.

It was 1997. Malachiah McQueen, a mentally unstable man who was a patient of Sandhills Mental Health, attacked officers who were trying to serve a warrant on him, then-Sheriff Jim Sellers said at the time.

On Jan. 3, 1997, McQueen’s mother called 911 from Food Lion, the Anson Record previously reported. Deputies learned that McQueen’s sister, Janice Little, said that McQueen had threatened to kill her and others.

A warrant was issued for McQueen, and Capt. Mike Smith and Sgt. David Morton — both with the Anson County Sheriff’s Office — were dispatched, according to the articles. McQueen said if the officers “tried to take him, they would die,” according to Sellers. When Morton left to get pepper spray, McQueen knocked Smith out and began beating his head. Morton assisted Smith and the deputy regained consciousness, and all went outside.

McQueen went back in the house despite orders to halt, prompting the deputies to radio for backup, according to the articles. Minutes after Smith called for him to exit, McQueen went out a separate door in the dark. Morton used pepper spray on McQueen’s head, but it didn’t deter him.

The deputies were prepared to let McQueen continue into the woods and have someone stay at the house when McQueen “wheeled around,” according to the articles. When officers thought he reached for a gun, Officer Tony Martino and Smith both fired at him.

McQueen didn’t have a gun, only “a small hand weight in his right hand, and a smoking pipe and a small amount of marijuana in his left hand,” the newspaper quoted Sellers as saying.

Sellers later told the community that “mental health told them (McQueen) didn’t have a problem.

“But McQueen’s death was seen as a culmination of three years of frustration — and why there was a community outcry for an independent investigation,” Jesse Campbell, then-president of the Anson branch of the NAACP said.

Ken Honeycutt, then the district attorney, was reported in the Feb. 5, 1997 issue of the Anson Record as saying that the officers involved in that shooting were acting in self-defense.

Because of community concerns that race played a factor in the shooting, Honeycutt asked the FBI to investigate it separately.

The Anson County branch of the NAACP also investigated, with Campbell saying the official conclusion was “what we expected,” according to the article.

No charges were pressed against any of the officers.

McQueen was found to have been shot at least nine times, according to one of the articles, which cited one of McQueen’s relatives.

RECENT SHOOTINGS

Kim Lee Long, 48, was killed in November of 2014. He had been shot three times, once in his abdomen, once in his chest and once in his right forearm, according to the autopsy. A toxicology report showed he was intoxicated at the time of the shooting.

Then-Sgt. Donald Jenks with the Anson County Sheriff’s Office shot him after responding to a 911 call from Long’s estranged wife, who said there was a domestic violence incident. Neither the sheriff’s office nor the SBI revealed the circumstances leading to the shooting.

Dennis Matthew Penny, 40, killed March 16, had six gunshot wounds, according to the autopsy report. Two were head shots, one was to his chest, one to his left leg, one to his right leg and one to his upper back.

Deputies Josh Martin and Kyle Beam exchanged fire with Penny after responding to a call at Blewett Falls to check on Penny’s girlfriend, whom he had allegedly threatened. Officials did not say whether bullets from both deputies fatally wounded Penny.

Bobby Rex Horne, 63, was killed by deputies on July 15. His daughter had called 911 saying he had slurred speech, and Horne’s wife confirmed it and said Horne asked that no one respond. When EMS arrived, Horne refused treatment and EMS requested deputies’ assistance.

Deputy Jonathan Hough and Lt. Timothy Watkins responded. Horne pointed a .308 rifle at Hough despite Hough’s orders to drop the weapon, officials said. Hough then shot Horne while Watkins guided a family member to safety.

No information on Horne’s wounds was available by press deadline.

A fourth officer-related death is currently being investigated. Lammont Darryl Perry, 32, died in Wadesboro Oct. 27. He was a probation absconder who died after probation and parole Officer William Kyle Torrence handcuffed him and suffered an apparent leg injury before suddenly becoming unresponsive.

There was no evidence that a gun or Taser was used during the arrest. On Dec. 23, Special Agent in Charge Audria Bridges said that the investigation in Perry’s death is ongoing and that she could not confirm any injuries.

WAR ON POLICE?

OfficerDownMemorialPage.com says there have been 138 line-of-duty deaths this year; however, those deaths include heart attacks, accidents, drownings, 9/11-related illnesses and more. According to CNN, at least 64 officers had been shot and killed this year as of Dec. 13.

That number is the most in five years, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. But it’s also less than in recent decades.

Last year, 38 officers were killed in firearm-related incidents, marking a 68 percent increase this year. Two were in North Carolina.

In 2011, 73 officers were shot; in 2007, 70 were.

The logs kept by the FBI of people shot and killed by police in cases of justifiable homicide is not complete, so numbers are less available in those instances.

The FBI defines justifiable homicide as “certain willful killings that must be reported as justifiable or excusable,” according to its website. “In the (FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Index) Program, justifiable homicide is defined as and limited to the killing of a felon by a peace officer in the line of duty (and) the killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen.”

ANSON COUNTY OFFICER DEATHS

No officer has died while serving in Anson County since 2004, and none have been killed by a suspect since 1998.

1910 — The first officer to die in Anson was McFarlan Officer James Marion Sings, 47, who died July 20, 1910. He was shot by a suspect who tried to prevent the arrest of another suspect.

1926 — Peachland Constable Mattie George Faulkner died Jan. 16, 1926 after he was shot while chasing suspected bootleggers after a liquor still was raided.

1929 — North Carolina Highway Patrolman George I. Thompson died July 2, 1929 when a truck operated by a 13-year-old from Albemarle ran a stop sign and hit his truck. Thompson had graduated from the first state patrol school the day before and was the first North Carolina highway patrolman to die in the line of duty.

1973 — Deputy Sheriff Selby Harney Sr. died Aug. 31, 1973 when he had an apparent heart attack while responding to a call about a shooter. He had just finished assisting other deputies in talking a mentally ill subject who was shooting at motorists into surrendering.

1977 — Chief Deputy Gilbert Dean died Feb. 12, 1977 when he had a heart attack after helping to arrest a suspect who was accused of being intoxicated and disruptive.

1984 — Deputy William Kress Horne, 24, was fatally shot Dec. 23, 1984 when responding to a call about a suspect shooting into a neighborhood.

1998 — Deputy William Jonathan Crawley, 29, died Aug. 31, 1998 when he was shot by a suspect while escorting a woman to her home to collect clothing and serving a warrant on the woman’s husband to make him move out.

2001 — Chief Deputy Jesse Lee Pratt, 52, died Sept. 14, 2001 when his patrol car was struck by another vehicle in Morven while Pratt was on his way to work.

2004 — Trooper Josh W. Oliver died March 24, 2004 from injuries sustained in a car wreck 18 months earlier when he hit a bridge abutment in Anson while responding to a call in a rain storm.

Only four of the nine officer deaths were from injuries given by a suspect. Of those, all four were shot. The other five died from apparent heart attacks or car accidents.

COMMISSIONER CONFIDENCE

Anna Baucom, chairwoman of the county board of commissioners, said that as far as she is aware, the commissioners have not had a conversation about allocating funds to purchase body cameras for deputies, “but it sounds like something perhaps we should.”

Baucom said that the commissioners can discuss it, though it would be up to Sheriff Landric Reid if he wants to invest in them.

“Actually, the sheriff is the highest elected official in the county,” Baucom said. “We are not likely to try to second-guess or interfere in any way, but what we do do is when the census at the jail gets too high, we will talk about that, because that’s costing money that could be better spent somewhere else. We do talk about when cars are wrecked, and that sort of thing, because that has all kinds of impact on our budget. So other than that, we don’t, say, micro-manage that operation.”

She felt that the shootings are a sign of the times.

“It sounds like my particular theory on it is this is a part of the environment that is a part of this era,” Baucom said. “A lot of dissatisfaction, a lot of frustration, and a lot of quick tempers, and I think you would find this increase across the state.”

She said she is concerned for officer safety.

“What I don’t want to happen is for deputies to become targets, for frustration and dissatisfaction,” she said.

Baucom said she doesn’t see the shootings as something to condemn, but to use as a catalyst for discussions on body cameras.

“Nobody wants to say, ‘Oh, you guys have gone nuts,’” she said. “Nobody wants to do that because I don’t think they have. I think that officers are in precarious situations. They never know when they stop a vehicle if somebody’s going to come out shooting or whatever. They don’t know if they’ve got a drug addict behind the wheel or a drunk person; they have to be on high alert all of the time. But I am aware knowing our sheriff’s disposition and heart. He would not advocate shoot first, ask questions later. We have not, but sounds like a conversation we should have about body cameras.”

‘THE WORLD WE LIVE IN’

Sheriff Landric Reid also said that the case involving McQueen was the only other time he can remember a local case involving deadly force.

In July, after Horne was shot, Reid said that it’s just “part of the world we live in.”

In November, almost one year after Long’s death, he said that the community has supported him and his department.

“I think most of the public understands,” Reid said. “I get a lot of support from the public in the sheriff’s office. We’re even getting support from some of the families.”

That doesn’t mean it is something the sheriff wants to get used to.

“I don’t think it’s part of a new trend in this county,” he said. “The world changes; therefore, law enforcement is changing. One of our goals is to get officers training in mental health. We have to be trained to react for mental health needs.”

Former Sheriff Tommy Allen, Reid’s immediate predecessor, served for 28 years before retiring in December 2014. He was Anson County’s longest-serving sheriff and one of the longest-serving in the state, holding his office from 1978-1994 and from 2002-2014.

“I never had an incident where anybody was shot and killed,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s the luck of the draw. The three incidents that happened in the last year were considered justifiable, and from everything I knew they were justifiable 100 percent.”

Allen said that the climate has changed for law enforcement.

“It’s a different world out there today than it was 10 years ago,” he said. “The last four or five years I was sheriff, we noticed people with guns we were arresting had more aggressive behavior. But we hadn’t quite crossed that threshold.”

Allen didn’t know what caused the change, adding, “I wish I knew.”

Although numbers show that officer deaths are down compared to recent decades both locally and nationally, and the number of both national officer deaths and local officer-involved deaths spiked this year, Reid said he believes the data to be unrelated.

“Just basically, I think really the numbers will change both ways, for officers killed in the line of duty and officer-involved shootings,” Reid said. “In different situations, you’ve got to treat each situation different.”

Allen said that it is “hard to explain,” but that each case is different.

Cases in small counties like Anson can hardly be compared to those in larger areas, he said.

“In places in Anson County, we know most of the people we deal with,” Reid said. “We can have a relationship with people we have to deal with.”

In the last year, two of the three shooting deaths involved people from outside the county. Horne died at his house in Peachland, but Long was from Gastonia and Penny from South Carolina.

The Washington Post began tracking officer-involved fatal shootings in 2015. As of Dec. 23, 940 people had been shot and killed by police this year.

Of the 991 killed by police in 2015, 23 of those were in North Carolina.

Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.

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Imari Scarbrough | Anson Record Sheriff Landric Reid in his office in the Anson County Sheriff’s Office.
https://ansonrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_Sheriff-Landric-Reid-at-desk.jpgImari Scarbrough | Anson Record Sheriff Landric Reid in his office in the Anson County Sheriff’s Office.

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By Imari Scarbrough

iscarbrough@civitasmedia.com