Former Mecklenburg prosecutor who shot, killed man won’t be charged

Stephen Sellers, the former assistant district attorney who shot and killed a man who had shot his own grandmother last year, will not be charged with a crime, according to a letter from the DA’s office obtained by the Observer.

Sellers shot and killed Degarrian Santonia Coleman last June, just east of uptown Charlotte. Police say that Coleman was mentally disturbed and that his grandmother, Patricia Crawford, was taking him to get help when Coleman shot her. Police elected not to charge Sellers but brought the facts of the case to the district attorney’s office for review.

Since the shooting last summer, questions have swirled about the moments leading up to the fatal encounter, and Crawford has said Sellers didn’t warn her mentally ill grandson before shooting.

Sellers was an assistant district attorney from September 2011 until March 2014. He served on the misdemeanor team and the drug prosecution team, but he was not affiliated with the DA’s office when the shooting occurred June 30. Some of his former colleagues found themselves in the position of deciding whether he should be charged.

In outlining its reasoning, the letter says Sellers “was facing an armed, agitated assailant that had already shot an unarmed woman. When Mr. Sellers intervened, he himself was also in danger of death or great bodily harm from Coleman.”

According to the letter, Sellers was inside a home on Pegram Street when he heard a gunshot and a woman and a man yelling. “The woman was screaming that she had been shot,” the letter says.

Through his window, Sellers saw Coleman chasing Crawford, a fact confirmed by several eyewitnesses.

Sellers did not try to intervene at first, the letter says. He attempted to take pictures of the armed man in case he needed to be identified by police. But the situation escalated when Coleman began walking toward Crawford.

“I was worried he was gonna kill her,” Sellers later told investigators. “I made a decision at that time to go and get a weapon in case he did try to kill her.” Sellers retrieved a rifle from his gun safe and went back to the window.

At one point, Sellers saw Coleman lift the gun and point it at Crawford.

“Mr. Sellers then exited the residence and approached Coleman,” the letter says. “Sellers repeatedly yelled for Coleman to drop the gun. As Sellers approached, Coleman turned toward Sellers and raised his gun at Sellers. It was at that point that Sellers fired three rounds at Coleman.”

According to the letter, Coleman was struck in the chest, abdomen and left hand.

After the shooting, Sellers placed his rifle on the ground and waited for police.

Crawford told WBTV, the Observer’s news partner, that Sellers never said a word before shooting her grandson.

“I understand that he didn’t know what was going on. He probably felt that here’s this man out here trying to kill this woman,” Crawford told WBTV. “But my thing is, when he shot him one time, he didn’t have to shoot him again. My baby is gone. Thirty-one years old. Gone.” Crawford couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.

But the district attorney’s letter says some of the statements Crawford gave helped them determine that the shooting was justified. Detectives interviewed Crawford just after she was treated for the gunshot wound.

She told investigators she knew her grandson was suffering from mental health issues. She feared that he was going to shoot her, and she jumped from a moving car. As she ran, he shot at her, striking her in the leg.

“I’m begging him, ‘Please don’t kill me,’ (because) he kept putting that gun to my head. … I thought he was gonna shoot me in the head (because) that’s where he kept putting the gun to me,” the letter quoted Crawford as saying.

“When asked what would have happened if Sellers had not shot Coleman, Crawford said Coleman would have killed her.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 6:09 PM with the headline "Former Mecklenburg prosecutor who shot, killed man won’t be charged."