By Christopher D. Kirkpatrick and Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
The Charlotte Observer
GASTONIA, N.C. — Gastonia police Chief Tim Adams defended one of his detectives for shooting at two suspects in Charlotte as they carjacked an unmarked police SUV and then crashed it moments later in a ball of flames.
One of the suspects died from a gunshot wound, the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office reported Friday. The other suspect was arrested later Thursday night and charged with multiple crimes.
The bizarre chain of events began Thursday night with a robbery in east Charlotte that led to a car chase with Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.
The incident raises questions about CMPD’s chase policies and exactly how two suspects were able to wrest a Gastonia police SUV loaded with ammunition from a seasoned detective.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Rodney Monroe held a news conference Thursday night at the scene, and his department confirmed that a Gastonia officer had fired at least two shots in the carjacking. But he and other police brass didn’t respond to requests Friday for more information about the chase or the shooting.
CMPD spokesman Officer Robert Fey said Monroe and all high-ranking officers were at a previously scheduled retreat Friday and could not be reached.
Gastonia police Detective Jim Poole was in Charlotte on police business and had knocked off for the evening as a red Mustang sped past him on westbound Brookshire Freeway near Interstate 77, police say.
The two suspects inside were being chased by Charlotte police. They say the men had just robbed someone at 7:30 p.m. on Eastcrest Drive and were trying to get away in the Mustang, which police believe had been previously stolen.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say they let up on the chase and fell back because speeds were dangerously high.
Gastonia police say the suspects drove past Poole erratically and then crashed in front of him on the freeway.
The detective, driving an unmarked Gastonia police SUV, pulled over and prepared to investigate or help. But the two suspects from the crashed Mustang surprised him and jumped into his car, forcing him out.
Adams said that Poole, a narcotics detective and 18-year veteran, believed the suspects had a gun and that he “was in fear for his life.”
The chief couldn’t say for sure if the detective saw a gun.
Poole fired his weapon at least twice, hitting at least one of the suspects, CMPD said.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers, who had been chasing the suspects, arrived at the scene and witnessed the “altercation” between Poole and the suspects.
The suspects sped away, this time in the police SUV, but quickly crashed into a highway sign post. The SUV, with police ammunition stored inside, burst into flames.
The driver, Takim Skipper, 20, died at the scene from a gunshot wound to the left side of his torso. The other suspect, Shajan Marrero, 19, escaped.
The two friends have criminal records.
Skipper was sentenced to at least six months in prison last year for felony breaking and entering, and larceny. He had been placed on two years’ probation in 2006 for the same crimes. But his probation was revoked and he was sent to prison last year. He was released Aug. 31.
Last month, Skipper was placed on unsupervised probation for a year for possession of marijuana and a reckless driving charge.
Marrero was placed on two years’ probation in Wilson County in 2007 in connection with a stolen motor vehicle.
After escaping the fiery crash Thursday night, Marrero walked, bloody and barefoot, three miles to his fiancee Sasha Crowder’s Southwest Drive apartment.
She watched him walk up the street. He wasn’t wearing a coat in the 30-degree weather, she noticed.
“Takim is dead,” she said he told her. “The car is gone.”
Crowder learned little from him as she cleaned a wound to his head. She said he was grazed by a bullet.
She said she had a feeling he was being evasive, and wanted to press him for details. But before she could, “every cop in Charlotte pulled up outside.”
Copyright 2009 The Charlotte Observer