Lawsuit says Charlotte police chase led to woman’s death. CMPD says it didn’t happen.
A 2023 police chase involving a Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department officer led to a local woman’s death, an ongoing lawsuit alleges. That chase violated CMPD’s pursuit policy, it states.
The department, however, says a police pursuit never happened. Instead, the fatal crash was solely caused by dangerous driving by a suspect who has since been charged with second-degree murder.
“At no time was the CMPD officer in pursuit of Mr. Rhoads’ speeding vehicle,” the department said in an August 2023 statement following the crash.
The legal battle calls into question when officers following another vehicle rises to the department’s definition of an official pursuit — police maneuvers known to pose risks to the public that can take lives.
City officials and CMPD officials declined to comment on the dispute, citing active litigation.
The crash
On August 6, 2023, CMPD officer Andrew Brown watched as a 2005 Silver Infiniti G35 sped southwest on Pineville-Matthews Road, driving 15 miles above the 45 MPH limit, according to court records.
Driver Gregory Rhoads, 26, didn’t stop when the officer hit his lights and sirens. Instead, Rhoads ran a red light and collided with a 2010 Acura as it tried to turn left onto Baybrook Lane.
The Acura slid off the right side of the road into a nearby brush. Inside were Kenneth Faison and 33-year-old Sheronda Woody-Wilson, who was pinned in the passenger seat. She had to be extracted by the Charlotte Fire Department and died shortly after at Atrium Hospital, where Rhoads and Faison were also taken with serious injuries.
Woody-Wilson was a chef and New Jersey native who’d moved to Charlotte as a child. She left behind a then-11-year-old daughter.
Rhoads had a long history of felony drug and driving offenses, court records say, and was charged with second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon in Woody-Wilson’s death. He was also charged with two counts of possession for the 295 grams of marijuana police say he had with him.
But what led up to the deadly crash, and who is to blame, is where accounts differ.
Pointing fingers
The lawsuit, filed by Woody-Wilson’s father Ernest Wilson in May, names Rhoads, Faison and CMPD officer Brown as defendants.
A pursuit did happen, the suit alleges. As Rhoads sped northwest on Pineville-Matthews Road, throwing “felony amounts” of marijuana out the window, according to criminal records, Officer Brown followed.
And the chase violated the police department’s pursuit policy, it contends.
“The collision occurred because Officer Brown violated applicable rules and regulations, including the CMPD directives, by engaging in the pursuit, for what CMPD contends was a speeding violation,” the pleading reads.
Rhoads and Faison’s negligent driving were also to blame for Woody-Wilson’s death, the suit alleges, though it’s not clear from court documents how Faison’s actions may have contributed to the collision. Faison was not charged in the crash, according to CMPD’s statement, and denied negligence in the suit.
Calls and emails to Faison’s attorney were not returned .
Rhoads, in court documents filed by his attorney, invoked Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in response to most claims in the suit.
Police have a different take
CMPD maintains that the fatal crash happened “just prior to the CMPD officer catching up to the speeding vehicle,” but “at no time was the CMPD officer in pursuit of Mr. Rhoads’ speeding vehicle,” the department said in a news release the day of the crash.
“Excessive speed, failing to stop for a police vehicle, and running a red light are contributing factors in this crash,” the release said.
Forty-seven associated police body camera recordings and seven Department of Transportation recordings captured, in part, Officer Brown’s encounter with Rhoads and the subsequent on-scene crash site investigation, according to a June petition from the city to have the footage released. But none are viewable by those not involved in the suit.
Buncombe County Superior Court Judge Alan Thornburg’s order giving the footage to the City Attorney’s Office prohibited release of the recordings to the public.
The CMPD’s pursuit directive, current at the time of the crash, limited “pursuable offenses.” Those included a reasonable suspicion that a driver or occupant has or is committing a life-threatening crime, and an ability for the officer to articulate a pressing need to apprehend a suspect “because of potential harm to the public.”
Pursuits should be stopped when they pose an unreasonable danger to the public or if the chase becomes futile, among other scenarios, according to the directive.
Attorneys for the city of Charlotte in court filings deny any liability for Woody-Wilson’s death or that any negligence occurred.
Pursuits carry long history of fatalities
The suit is not the first to accuse CMPD of causing a bystander’s death during a pursuit. A wrongful death suit filed last January alleged that the CMPD pursuit of a Jeep with an obscured license plate in north Charlotte led to the death of young mother Brittany Webb two years earlier.
In that case, a CMPD police sergeant told officers to stop pursuing the Jeep, bodycam footage later showed, but the chase continued. Driver Bryan Franklin Jr. was sentenced to 13 years in prison for second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
Chases by other local law enforcement agencies have also ended in bystander deaths. In September 2023, Cynthia Lail and her 12-year-old son Michael were killed when a Hickory police officer crashed into their minivan while chasing a motorcycle along U.S. Highway 70.
Just last month, 40-year-old Concord resident Calvin Costner died when a Camaro fleeing North Carolina State Highway Patrol along George Liles Boulevard ran a red light and crashed into his Cadillac. The Cadillac caught on fire on impact, and Costner died at the scene.
Data on deaths linked to police pursuits in communities can be sparse. But what data does exist shows bystanders often pay the price for pursuits.
Significantly, most people killed in police chases nationwide are not the drivers being pursued by police, an analysis by the San Francisco Chronicle found. Almost two people a day died on average in 2020 and 2021 as a result of police pursuits, and more than 80% of fatal police chases began over minor issues like traffic stops or suspected nonviolent offenses, the analysis found.
Pursuit policies set by law enforcement agencies can vary widely, with some leaving much up to officers’ discretion, and others outlining specific parameters for chases.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police had 76 pursuits in 2024, up 7% from the previous year, according to the department’s annual report.