Pineville police identify man who was fatally shot by sergeant after shoplifting call
Police in the town of Pineville on Wednesday identified the man who was fatally shot by a police sergeant after a shoplifting call as Dennis Bodden, 46, of Charlotte.
Police said that the sergeant on Tuesday fatally shot Bodden, who was unarmed, after Bodden reached for the sergeant’s gun.
Police would not release the name of the sergeant.
According to a press release from town police on Wednesday:
The encounter began shortly after 3 p.m. in the parking lot at the Johnston Road Plaza.
The sergeant, who was in uniform but not on the clock for Pineville police, was working off-duty at the McMullen Creek Market when he responded to a shoplifting call at nearby Johnson Road Plaza. He confronted Bodden in the Food Lion parking lot.
Police knew Bodden as a “chronic shoplifting suspect” at the Food Lion and said that the deceased man had “violent tendencies towards the police and the public.” The press release said he had four unserved felony warrants connected to break-ins at the same Food Lion.
Upon initial contact, Bodden ignored the sergeant’s “verbal and lawful orders to stop,” and walked away.
The sergeant followed Bodden across Johnston Road and called for more officers. Bodden became “physically confrontational” with the sergeant, the department said.
The sergeant used a Taser on Bodden. He continued to walk away towards Cedar Circle Drive.
A backup officer from Pineville arrived and “an additional escalation of a physical threat by Mr. Bodden was perceived by actively resisting the officers’ efforts to apprehend him.”
“Mr. Bodden displayed pre-assault indicators towards officers, therefore a second deployment of a Taser was initiated by the back-up officer,” the press release said. “With the Taser having little to no effect on Mr. Bodden, he lunged towards our sergeant and tried to grab his service weapon, ending up with the use of deadly force.”
Pineville Police Capt. Corey Copley said on Wednesday that Bodden was shot in the parking lot of the Berkshire Place apartments in Charlotte.
Police said officers provided medical attention to Bodden until Medic arrived.
Both officers were taken to a hospital to be treated for injuries, police said. Pineville police didn’t say what the injuries were, but said the officers were not shot.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s homicide division is handling the investigation of the shooting.
The sergeant who shot Bodden was placed on paid administrative leave. The department declined the Observer’s request for copies of the police radio communications from the incident, and for the sergeant’s disciplinary record.
The town of more than 10,000 people is on the line of North Carolina and South Carolina.
