Residents line I-77 bridges to memorialize officer killed in Charlotte shooting
Scores of residents held American flags on bridges over Interstate 77 during a law enforcement processional on Wednesday for Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas M. “Tommy” Weeks Jr.
Weeks, a 48-year-old Mooresville father of four, died in Monday’s Charlotte shooting where four law enforcement officers were killed and four more shot and injured.
The processional to I-77 exit 36 (N.C. 150) in Mooresville began after noon at the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office in Charlotte, the Cornelius Police Department said on Facebook.
The processional headed east on N.C. 150 to Cavin-Cook Funeral Home.
“Nothing else today matters,” Kelvin Locklear told The Charlotte Observer near the exit 36 bridge moments before the processional arrived. He closed his K&M Collision Center to stand at the exit with his eight employees.
“Just gotta be here,” he said. “It’s about paying respect to him, his family and his fellow officers who served with him.”
Heather Davidson drove to exit 36 from Statesville with 4-year-old granddaughter Evie. Her son was a Marine who now works as an EMT.
“I’m here out of respect for what (Weeks) did and for what officers do on a daily basis,” she said.
Weeks was a 13-year veteran of the U.S. Marshals Service, serving in the Western District of North Carolina for the last 10 years. He was part of the team executing a warrant for the arrest of Terry Clark Hughes Jr., 39, who was wanted for possession of a firearm by a felon and eluding.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is leading the investigation of the shootout.
Weeks started his career with the marshals in February 2011 in the District of Columbia’s Superior Court. He transferred in November 2014 to Charlotte. He previously spent eight years with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
He leaves behind a wife and four children.
