Witness to Charlotte police shooting: ‘Why would he get out and shoot?’

As investigators gathered evidence in the January fatal shooting of Josue Javier Diaz by an undercover CMPD officer, at least one witness says she gave them an account that differs from information police have released publicly.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have said almost from the beginning that Diaz, 28, fired a gunshot at the officer before he was killed Jan. 26 along Albemarle Road in east Charlotte. Investigators recovered a .22-caliber revolver at the scene and found a bullet hole and projectile in the unmarked vehicle the officer had been driving, the department has said.

But Addie Russell, who recorded part of the confrontation on her cellphone, says she saw nothing that suggests Diaz attempted to shoot the officer. Russell said she gave a statement to CMPD and told investigators she believed all of the gunshots she heard came from one gun.

Russell, 40, who is part-owner of a business near the shooting scene, said she was helping a customer when she heard three shots in succession. As she walked out the door to see what happened, Russell said she heard two or three more shots. She said she saw a man in a brown sweater, who was later identified as the officer, standing in the street, pointing a gun.

Her video, which has circulated on Facebook, shows the moments immediately after the shooting. A person appears to be pointing a gun at a pickup truck’s driver’s side window just before police move in and detained someone who appeared to be in the passenger side of the vehicle.

“If he’s so undercover why would he get out and shoot this kid? It doesn’t make sense,” Russell said. “All of these questions are unanswered in my mind.”

The account comes after the recent release of recordings from two 911 calls in which witnesses describe the officer shooting a motorist, but make no mention of that person shooting at the undercover officer.

It also follows statements from a friend who said he had been riding in the truck with Diaz when the confrontation with the officer took place. Juan Jose Silverio said that Diaz was shot when he got out to apologize because his truck side-swiped the officer’s unmarked vehicle.

CMPD would not make officials available for interviews.

In a written statement, department spokesman Rob Tufano said detectives determined through physical evidence and witness statements that Diaz fired his weapon at the undercover officer.

Investigators recovered a .22 caliber revolver, which was test-fired and found in good working condition, Tufano said. The projectile recovered from the undercover detective’s vehicle was determined to be a .22 caliber round, he said.

Conflicting accounts

There are conflicting accounts about what happened in the moments before the shooting.

Most agree that the car in which Diaz and another person were riding side-swiped the undercover detective’s unmarked car about 1:15 p.m. on Albemarle Road, a heavily traveled business strip. Diaz, the driver, continued and the detective pulled behind the truck to follow.

That’s where accounts start to differ. CMPD has said Diaz stopped and got out of the truck with a handgun.

Silverio, who said he was in the truck at the time of the shooting, disputes that. He has said that Diaz’s gun remained in the glove compartment the entire time.

Diaz “got out of the truck to talk to (the detective) but when he got out of his truck, the officer started to fire,” Silverio said.

Diaz’s family has also disagreed the police version of events.

On the day of the shooting, he had just visited a restaurant and was headed to his parents’ home when he was killed, said Elizabeth Diaz, his sister.

Diaz said her brother legally carried a gun, but lived a peaceful life. A father, he like to host cookouts with friends.

She said her family’s pain has been deepened by unanswered questions about how her brother died.

“Why are they shooting to kill?” Diaz asked. “Why are they trying to take lives away? Why didn’t he wait for other cops to arrive?”

Typically after police shootings, CMPD releases the names of officers in on-duty shooting. But the department thus far has refused to reveal the officer’s identity, saying it could compromise his undercover work.

Diaz said the secrecy adds to her suspicions and makes it impossible to check the officer’s work history, including information about suspensions or other instances of use of force.

One person’s account

Russell, the business owner, said she went to CMPD headquarters uptown to give a statement shortly after the shooting. She said she didn’t know at the time the shooter was a police officer.

Russell said she assumed she was helping police catch a “madman.”

She said she told investigators about a man in a brown sweater pointing a gun. She said she did not see Diaz standing outside the truck. She said she did not see the gun police say Diaz fired.

Russell insists the shots came from one gun. She said the shots were not fired in rapid succession.

Russell said she is speaking out because she is skeptical of the police account. She wonders why CMPD won’t reveal the officer’s name since his face has already been seen by witnesses who were driving or walking by.

Russell said she was trying to help CMPD, but said the investigator who interviewed her seem to cast doubt on her account.

“They kept telling me how easy it is to get things mixed up or that you might not have seen what you thought you saw,” Russell said. “I felt like I was being treated like I did something wrong.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 1:07 PM with the headline "Witness to Charlotte police shooting: ‘Why would he get out and shoot?’."