Fayetteville man who police said shot himself while in handcuffs dies in hospital

Paul Woolverton and Lexi Solomon, Fayetteville Observer
Updated ·3 min read
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The man who Fayetteville police said shot himself last week while in custody and handcuffed died Friday, according to an obituary.

On Tuesday, the Fayetteville Police Department confirmed in a news release that Artis was pronounced dead at 11:39 p.m. Friday. An autopsy was conducted by the office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Meanwhile, the death of Lawrence Treyshoun Artis was discussed during the public hearing section of the Fayetteville City Council meeting Monday night. And City Councilman Mario Benavente proposed that the city seek permission from Cumberland County Superior Court to make public the body camera video recordings from the officers who were arresting Artis.

Artis, 29, died at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, his obituary says. The Police Department said last week that officers arrested Artis early Oct. 2 in a parking lot at or near the 6900 block of Cliffdale Road after the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system reported gunfire in that area.

More on ShotSpotter debut: Fayetteville ShotSpotter had a rocky start. How did a handcuffed man end up shot?

Spokespersons for the Police Department and the State Bureau of Investigation — which is investigating the shooting — could not be reached for comment Monday night.

At the request of Benavente, the City Council on Monday night voted 8-1 to have the council have city staff to request the release of the police body camera footage from Artis’ shooting. The motion passed 8-1, with Councilwoman Kathy Jensen voting in opposition. Councilman Derrick Thompson was not present due to the death of his mother, Mayor Mitch Colvin said.

Under state law, police body camera videos may not be released to the public without the permission of a Superior Court judge.

“How does a handcuffed person end up harming themselves, apparently to death?” Benavente said in an interview after the council meeting. “We work for the community. We work for the people. And if they’re demanding an answer to these questions, and we have body cam footage that can reveal those answers, then I think it behooves us as a city council to make that available to the people.”

The police report of the shooting

The Police Department last week said in news releases:

  • The city’s new ShotSpotter system, a network of audio sensors that monitor the area for gunfire and indicate a location where the gunshots came from, reported gunfire in the 6900 block of Cliffdale Road in western Fayetteville.

  • Officer Justin DeHaan, Officer Trent Folk and Officer Ryan Hirschis went to the area and found Artis walking through a parking lot. He was detained and searched, and a gun was found.

  • Artis was a convicted felon. When the police officers realized this, they began to arrest him for being a convicted felon illegally in possession of a gun.

  • The police officers searched Artis further, and Artis, in handcuffs, pulled another gun from his pants. The police said he shot himself with this gun.

The three officers were moved to administrative duties while the shooting is under investigation, the Police Department said last week.

Activists call for transparency

The City Council had its regular public forum on Monday, and several community activists called for the city and Police Department to share with the public details and reports of what happened when the officers stopped Artis and arrested him.

Shaun McMillan was critical of the Police Department and Police Chief Kem Braden for not publicly reporting that Artis had died three days prior.

“We expected transparency, but unfortunately this city, time and time again, has shown an aversion to honesty and transparency,” McMillan said. He called for the city to shut down the ShotSpotter system.

Angela Tatum Malloy expressed doubt on the Police Department’s description of what happened. She called for the release of the body camera video and said the Artis shooting proves ShotSpotter will not make Fayetteville safer.

“What it proves is that ShotSpotter will increase unnecessary shootings of Black folks as a result of its use,” she said.

Senior North Carolina reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@fayobserver.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville man who police said shot himself while in handcuffs dies