‘Can’t sleep at night’: Family of man shot, killed by Union County deputies wants answers
Malcolm Staton’s family demanded answers from the Union County Sheriff’s Office on Friday — more than a month after deputies shot and killed the 30-year-old man in front of his girlfriend and children.
“This life was tragically taken away from him and I want answers,” Staton’s mother, J’on, said during a news conference in front of the Union County Courthouse. “I want to know why you did what you did to my child.”
On March 15, a Union County deputy attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a sedan parked at the Sunny Food Mart at 1800 Walkup Ave. in Monroe, according to a Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook post. The driver, Staton, tried fleeing by using his car to strike at least three deputy vehicles involved in the traffic stop, the Sheriff’s Office said in its narrative of events that evening.
Before Staton could drive away, a deputy shot him, the Union County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies provided first aid until Staton was taken to a hospital, according to the Sheriff’s Office. He died on March 17, Monroe Police said.
Four people were in the car with Staton at the time of the shooting — his girlfriend, Cree Faulkner, as well as the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, 11-year-old son and another child, according to one of the family’s attorneys, Shean Williams. Neither Faulkner nor the children were injured during the incident, the Sheriff’s Office said.
But the emotional damage from the shooting remains with Faulkner and her children.
“They can’t sleep at night,” she said. “We’re all traumatized and it’s nothing they will ever heal from.”
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is conducting an independent investigation into the shooting and the deputies involved are on administrative leave, the Sheriff’s Office said. It’s standard for officers to be placed on administrative leave when they’re involved in a shooting. The Sheriff’s Office hasn’t named the deputies involved.
Williams and other attorneys from the Cochran Firm, which is representing the Staton family, also are conducting an investigation. The firm was founded in 1983 by the well-known defense attorney Johnnie Cochran.
A peaceful gathering for Staton was held in downtown Monroe on March 30, according to the Monroe Police Department.
‘God’s going to handle it’
The Cochran Firm’s investigation will be based on Faulkner’s testimony from March 15 and video footage from cameras at the Sunny Food Mart showing that Staton “never posed a risk to the deputies,” Williams told The Charlotte Observer on Friday.
Williams said Staton didn’t have a gun and his car didn’t hit any of the deputies’ vehicles prior to the shooting.
“There is no justification based on what we have thus far for firing a deadly lethal weapon into that vehicle that had children, a woman and Malcolm in it,” Williams said.
Williams said the firm has not spoken to the Union County Sheriff’s Office aside from requesting it release all security and body camera video. The Sheriff’s Office should conduct its own internal affairs investigation, he said.
“We want the answers of totally what happened, the disclosure of the videos that they are in possession of, information on who the shooter was and the legal justification reason for firing a gun into that vehicle,” Williams said.
If the firm’s investigation shows that Staton’s constitutional rights were violated, the family would request criminal prosecution for the deputies, Williams said.
“God’s going to handle it, and there will be glory after this,” J’on Staton said.
This story was originally published April 29, 2022 at 4:48 PM.
