Ex-Concord officer shot man at least 5 times as he took police SUV, autopsy shows
The autopsy report of 29-year-old Brandon Combs shows the Gastonia man was shot at least five times by a police officer in Concord just before he died, according to public records provided Monday by lawyers for Combs’ mother.
In a statement Monday, lawyers representing Combs’ mother again called for the Cabarrus County district attorney to conclude her review of whether to charge former Concord Police Department officer Timothy Larson.
Combs was killed on Feb. 13. Larson was fired May 20, The Charlotte Observer has previously reported.
Details about his firing are sparse but in a termination letter Police Chief Gary Gacek cited Larson for insubordination for refusing to answer questions following the shooting and for giving misleading or untrue answers in other instances to his superiors and the State Bureau of Investigation, which handled the shooting investigation.
The shooting happened early in the morning and stemmed from an alleged vehicle theft at a car dealership. Police department leaders have said Larson saw Combs trying to steal a car and when he confronted him, Combs ran and got into Larson’s police SUV.
Body camera footage of the shooting has not been publicly released, but the lawyers — Harry Daniels, Chimeaka White, and Chance Lynch — have seen the footage and said it shows Larson firing five rounds at Combs, pausing to report that shots were fired, and then shooting at Combs again. Combs was not armed with a gun.
“While a (Concord Police Department) news release following the shooting claimed a ‘physical altercation’ between Larson and Combs, the video shows that no physical altercation took place,” the lawyers said in a joint news release sent out Monday.
Emergency room doctors at Atrium Health hospital in Concord tried to save Combs but he died about an hour after being shot, autopsy records show.
Larson shot Combs at least five times, according to the autopsy performed by Medical Examiner Kevin Gullett. He had other wounds noted in the report including those that appeared to be blunt force trauma, and lacerations that may indicate he was grazed by bullets on other parts of his body.
Only one bullet was able to be removed by doctors as they tried to save Combs. The other bullet wounds in his chest had no exit points, Gullett wrote.
The Concord Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
The State Bureau of Investigation’s investigation of the shooting has been completed, and its findings were sent to Cabarrus County District Attorney Roxann Vaneekhoven.
Combs’ family called on Vaneekhoven to take the rare step in North Carolina of charging Larson with a crime or to take the case before a grand jury for a possible indictment, according to previous reporting by the Observer.
“It’s been almost six months since Larson shot and killed Brandon Combs,” Chimeaka White, one of Combs’ mother’s three lawyers said. “But even though the video was immediately available, this autopsy report was finalized in May and Larson was fired for lying to investigators, he still hasn’t been charged with a crime. Now we know it was a homicide. How long does the District Attorney need before she takes action?”
Reporter Michael Gordon contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 2, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
