Police not looking for any more suspects in deadly officer ambush

The chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said they are not looking for any more suspects after four officers were killed and four more were shot in the line of duty on Monday.

Three members of a U.S. Marshals fugitive task force, deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks, North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections workers Sam Poloche and William “Alden” Elliott, were killed while serving a warrant at an east Charlotte home.

CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer was critically wounded before he died at the hospital Monday, Chief Johnny Jennings said.

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“I can’t tell you how much I’m grateful for these officers and their heroic act,” Jennings said in a news conference Tuesday.

In addition to the four officers killed, four others were shot. A fifth officer was not shot but has a related injury.

Channel 9 learned late Tuesday that Statesville Police Department Cpl. Casey Hoover, an eight-year veteran, was shot in his upper torso, an area that was unprotected by his bulletproof vest. He was serving as part of the U.S. Marshals task force, the department said. He underwent surgery at a Charlotte hospital where he remains in stable condition, Statesville police said.

Hoover is expected to make a full recovery.

“During this challenging time, we kindly request privacy for Cpl. Hoover and his family as he continues his journey to recovery,” Statesville police said in a news release.

CMPD Officer Christopher Tolley was also shot and has undergone surgery. Tolley, an 18-year veteran of the department, is in now stable condition at the hospital, Jennings said.

Three-year CMPD veteran Officer Michael Giglio was treated at the hospital and released Monday after being shot, Jennings said.

The chief said Officer Jack Blowers, who has been with the department for a year, was shot also. He was treated and released from the hospital on Monday.

The final officer, CMPD Officer Justin Campbell, was not shot, Jennings said. He was treated for a broken foot and discharged from the hospital Tuesday morning. Jennings said he’s been with CMPD since 2020.

“Yesterday, officers went into the line of fire to save their brothers in blue that have gone down in the act of trying to keep our community safe,” Jennings said. “To me, that’s truly heroic. When you hear the gunshots and the rapid fire -- and they’re running directly into it because they know that there are people that need help. And they risked their own lives to do that.”

What happened

On Monday afternoon, officers with the U.S. Marshals’ Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force went to the home in the 5000 block of Galway Drive to serve a felony warrant. The suspect, later identified as 39-year-old Terry Clark Hughes, Jr., was going to be arrested for possession of firearm by a convicted felon.

The suspect shot multiple officers as they approached, Jennings said. As more officers responded, the gunfire continued and more officers were hit, Jennings said. The officers at the scene returned fire, shooting and killing the suspect in the front yard of the home.

“The suspect at the time had an upper advantage to the officer, so he was shooting from upstairs, down at the officers both front and back,” Jennings said.

He said that fact led officers to initially believe there were multiple shooters.

“I was probably premature in saying that cause it wasn’t really clear at the time,” Jennings said.

The department is reviewing body camera footage to determine if that was the case.

Jennings said CMPD’s homicide detectives are investigating the shooting. Officers said Monday they had taken two persons of interest into custody: A 17-year-old girl and a woman who were both inside the home. Both are fully cooperating with the investigation.

Jennings said the two are related to the suspect but couldn’t provide any more information. They are not charged at this point, but Jennings isn’t ruling anything out.

Chief Jennings said at this point in the investigation, they are not looking for any additional suspects.

“We feel like we have everyone involved that was at the house that we need to speak with,” Jennings said.

Jennings said more than 100 rounds of gunfire and casings will be collected from the scene, and detectives found a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle and a .40-caliber handgun as well. He said they found additional magazines and ammo for both guns.

The suspect unloaded several rounds at officers in a matter of seconds.

Bravery of fallen officers

“Words simply cannot express the impact of this event to the law enforcement and the first responder community,” Jennings said.

U.S. Marshal Terry Burgin with the Western District said he worked alongside Weeks for 20 years and knew Poloche, Elliott, and Eyer.

“If you could speak to each one of those fallen officers today and ask them the question why -- why did you take the oath? Why did you become law enforcement officers? Their response: Why not?” Burgin said. “The second question, would you do this again knowing your fate yesterday? Would you do it again? There would be a boisterous yes. They would not change a thing ... That’s how brave they were yesterday. And that’s how brave they were the day they took the oath of office.”

The task force that went to the home on Galway Drive is called the Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force. It began operations in January 2018 and is made of 16 agencies, with CMPD being one of them. The department has a sergeant assigned who was at the shooting scene Monday, Jennings said.

The other agencies in the task force are Atrium Health, Catawba County Sheriff’s Office, Department of Homeland Security – HIS, the Department of Justice ATF, Gaston County Police Department, Gastonia Police Department, Huntersville Police Department, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office, Monroe Police Department, Mooresville Police Department, North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, Statesville Police Department, Union County Sheriff’s Office and the York County Sheriff’s Office.

Twelve CMPD officers fired their guns during Monday’s incident, so all 12 have been put on administrative leave, Jennings said. The procedure is standard for an officer-involved shooting.

There’s no indication any of the officers who died succumbed to friendly fire, Jennings said.

Suspect’s background

The suspect who died in this shootout had multiple charges stemming from three different counties.

Channel 9′s Dave Faherty got his hands on warrants issued for Terry Hughes Jr. out of Person County, which borders Virginia and is located just north of Durham.

Faherty also spoke with several members of the suspect’s family who said they’re sorry about what happened.

Faherty went to the Person County Courthouse Tuesday, where he learned Hughes was out on a $60,000 bond after being arrested in October 2021 for possession of a firearm and a misdemeanor drug charge. Court documents say the arrest stemmed from him having a Taurus G2C handgun after a previous conviction for breaking and entering back in 2010. That conviction resulted in a six-month jail sentence.

Faherty spoke with one of Hughes’ cousins who still lives in the area and was watching the CMPD news conference Tuesday morning when Faherty arrived. He was in shock about what happened in Charlotte and said he and his wife are thinking about the family members of the officers who were shot and killed and those who were injured.

“Pray for the families that lost loved ones. Husbands and wives, just pray for the whole situation,” David Royster said. “The family is sorry and we pray for everyone. We’re sorry it happened.”

Family members said Hughes grew up at the end of a road in Semora where his father, several cousins and his 98-year old grandmother still live. Some told Faherty that Hughes had children.

Faherty tried reaching out to the suspect’s parents but was unable to speak with them Tuesday.

Monday’s warrant stems from Lincoln County incident

In Lincoln County, Sheriff Bill Beam told Channel 9′s Ken Lemon he believes Hughes shouldn’t have been out on the streets. Hughes had well over a dozen charges previously filed against him, Beam said.

The sheriff said in January, a deputy spotted Hughes acting strangely in Denver so he stopped Hughes on St. James Church Road.

Beam said as the deputy approached the car, Hughes yelled at him and drove away, reportedly reaching speeds of 120 mph on Highway 16 -- almost twice the speed limit. Hughes got off the bypass just as officers were preparing to use stop sticks. He reportedly drove through traffic, running red lights and nearly causing a head-on crash on busy side streets.

“One, he had tag numbers and had a view of the person that was driving,” Sheriff Beam said. “We stopped the chase so as not to endanger anyone else, and then he came back and did some more investigation and drew felony warrants that they were trying to serve yesterday.”

That led to Monday’s attempt to serve warrants and subsequent shootout. One of Beam’s deputies was part of the U.S. Marshals team that tried to arrest Hughes that day.

“It’s a horrible situation for all of these families that’s lost -- could it have been worse? Yes. And I hate to see any joy out of anything, but I praise God that my officer was not harmed, was not injured in all this,” Beam said. “At the same time, he was right there, right in the middle of this fight.”

The sheriff said his deputy went to the hospital after the shooting to show support for the officers wounded and he stopped in the office for just a little bit Tuesday morning and went right back to the hospital again.

Watch part of Beam’s interview with Lemon below:

(WATCH BELOW: Lincoln County sheriff speaks about suspect’s criminal history after 4 officers killed)

Over the years, Hughes was in and out of jail and prison. He landed in the Mecklenburg County on drug and fleeing charges. Some of those drug charges were dismissed two months after District Attorney Spencer Merriweather changed polices for prosecuting drug crimes “to better focus on violent crimes.”

The COVID-era court closure is also why court documents say they dropped a driving with a revoked license charge against Hughes in 2020.

But orders for Hughes’ arrest were issued for several charges in Mecklenburg County because he wasn’t showing up to court on other charges. That includes a 2021 flee elude arrest charge out of Mecklenburg County, where police said Hughes he fled a traffic stop on Old Statesville Road.

There was also a marijuana possession with intent to sell and deliver charge still pending from 2021.

From 2011 to 2017, Hughes bounced between the cell and freedom. His charges ranged from felony breaking and entering and possessing a firearm as a felon. In total, Hughes faced dozens of charges over the past two decades.

Jennings was asked if Hughes should have been out on the streets. He said he could give hundreds of examples of people who should not be preying on our citizens.