SBI conducting criminal investigation of CMPD in use of tear gas on uptown protesters

The State Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal investigation into CMPD’s decision to use tear gas on a largely peaceful crowd protesting the death of George Floyd, an official says.

Investigators — who have already begun reviewing camera footage and conducting interviews about the June 2 incident — are trying to determine whether laws were broken, SBI spokesperson Anjanette Grube said in an email to the Observer.

Grube’s statement differs from comments by Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles and City Manager Marcus Jones who have described the probe as a review of department policies and procedures.

The SBI generally does not review other agencies’ policies and procedures, Grube said.

“As a state law enforcement agency, we provide criminal investigative assistance to local law enforcement agencies while we also have original jurisdiction in some cases,” Grube wrote. “Criminal investigations is essentially what we do every single day.”

Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department spokesperson Rob Tufano said that the SBI investigation will involve a “review to determine that everything was lawful.”

CMPD Chief Kerr Putney requested the SBI investigation June 3, one day after video footage emerged, showing CMPD officers deploying tear gas on mostly peaceful protesters. The video, captured by alternative newspaper Queen City Nerve, shows protesters walking up 4th Street past the intersection with College Street. CMPD officers on one end deployed tear gas, but when protesters turned around, they found their path blocked off by more officers who also used chemical agents.

Tear gas can cause irritation, burning eyes and forcing people to cough. Protesters who were at the scene June 2 said the only means of escaping the gas was breaking into a nearby locked parking garage.

In a 2018 report on best practices for addressing mass protests, The Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit research organization made up of police executives across the country, advises against police completely encircling a crowd and preventing protesters from leaving the area.

Apart from the SBI investigation, two other probes are currently examining what happened in Charlotte.

One is an internal investigation led by CMPD, which will determine whether officers followed CMPD policy.

The Center for Domestic Preparedness, a part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency that specializes in training emergency response providers, will lead a review into the tactics CMPD used during the incident.

Charlotte City Council member Ed Driggs said he and other officials had been told that the SBI would conduct a review to determine if CMPD policies and procedures were followed. Driggs said officials were also told that agents could tell them if policies were flawed.

Driggs said he is awaiting more information to decide if CMPD officers were wrong to use chemical agents, but said people should be extremely cautious about saying they intentionally harmed protesters.

“Trying to contain 200, 300 people and being perfect is an extremely tall order,” Driggs said. “We may be trying to hold police to a standard that is too tall to meet.”

Officials did not make Lyles and Jones available for interviews. City spokesperson Cory Burkarth declined to comment.

“What we’re going to have is a review, a review of our policies as they relate to some of our policing and our procedures,” Jones said at a June 3 press conference. “If those policies and procedures are incorrect during this review, we will fix them. If those policies and procedures are deemed to be adequate during this review, we’re going to address them anyway.”

While answering a question about the SBI investigation at that same press conference, Mayor Vi Lyles said Charlotte must compare its policies for handling crowds and protests with other cities’ policies.

“I think we have to look at the policy and get familiar with it. We have to ask for data around what other people are doing and then ask the community to look at that data and see what they think we ought to be doing before we make a decision,” Lyles said.

After his department was harshly criticized, Putney said Tuesday that officers will start giving dispersal orders “loudly, clearly and repeatedly” before using “riot control agents.”

The City Council voted Monday night to prevent CMPD from buying chemical agents for one year. CMPD spent $103,000 on chemical agents in the past year.