Charlotte family seeks answers after police damage home in unsuccessful search
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police badly damaged a Charlotte family’s house during a standoff last weekend — while looking for a man the family says was never there.
After an hours-long standoff that began Saturday night, police officers fired pepper spray and tear gas into the London family’s home on Andora Drive off East W.T. Harris Boulevard in east Charlotte while attempting to serve felony arrest warrants on 19-year-old Trey McClendon, according to a CMPD press release. The operation caused structural damage to the house, police said.
The family was confident McClendon was not there and gave CMPD permission to enter the house, including giving them keys, Dominique Camm, the lawyer representing the family, told reporters at a Friday morning press conference. But despite the family pleading for them not to damage the house, Camm said, officers acquired a warrant and used force anyway.
There are holes in the roof of the house, and police said an officer fell through a ceiling during the search.
“The resulting circumstances following the operation are regrettable as the CMPD always strives to balance public safety while protecting personal property,” the CMPD release says.
CMPD offered “alternate living accommodations” and the family declined, police said. But Camm, a partner at the Charlotte-based Freedmen Law Group, said nobody from the police department had talked to him or the family about living arrangements.
“Risk Management with the City of Charlotte is currently working with the owner of the house on Andora Drive to begin the process of having the house repaired,” CMPD spokesperson Rob Tufano told the Observer in an email. “The renters of the residence have declined assistance from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and have found alternate living arrangements while repairs are made.”
Now the house’s residents are spread out and living with other people, Ebony Gunter, who was there Saturday night and whose mother lived in the house, told reporters Friday.
At 6:05 p.m. Saturday, patrol officers and CMPD’s violent crime apprehension team attempted to serve warrants for McClendon’s arrest, according to the CMPD release. Neighborhood residents had told CMPD that McClendon was at the home, it says.
Camm said one of the house’s residents knew McClendon, but that he didn’t know how a neighbor would have recognized him going into the house.
“SWAT was called to the scene to assist with his apprehension, given McClendon’s violent history,” the CMPD release said, noting that he had several felony warrants out for his arrest, including three counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
Then, police said, “after several hours of attempting to communicate with Mr. McClendon were unsuccessful, officers attempted to enter the location to take McClendon into custody.”
The family was not at the house when police came, and when family members arrived Camm said they were “forcibly escorted” to the intersection of Andora and Santa Cruz Trail, out of sight of the house.
Neighbors described seeing K-9 teams, snipers and officers with tactical gear like night vision goggles, he said, and the family heard flashbangs and saw flashes of light around midnight. People also saw a robot that may have been used to enter the house before officers, and a vehicle they described as a “tank,” he said.
“This neighborhood was literally turned into a combat zone, and CMPD was the occupying army,” Camm said.
Tufano did not comment on any of these details.
“The department had a responsibility to attempt to peacefully apprehend McClendon, given his violent history of victimizing community members,” Tufano said in his email.
After deploying pepper spray and tear gas, police said officers entered the house but didn’t find McClendon there. McClendon’s current status could not be determined as of Friday.
Camm said police let the family return to their home at around 3:30 a.m. Sunday. After being awake all night, they had to move their things out of the house and find a new place to stay.
“They destroyed our family home, a place where we stayed, a place where we once called home and had family gatherings — a place that we can no longer call a home,” Gunter said at the press conference, held in the front yard of the damaged house.
Now the family is scattered and disconnected, Gunter said. She has set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to help her mother rebuild.
“This is the place that we come and gather, and so now it’s like our sense of security, our sense of family has now been taken and shaken,” Gunter said. “And they did that for nothing. Like, at the end of the day, they walked away empty handed and they left us to deal with this.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP President Corine Mack said the incident was part of a “history of harming Black people” by CMPD, for which nobody is held accountable.
“This makes no sense, that we’re standing here this morning to talk about a house that was preyed upon by people who took a vow to protect and serve,” Mack said. “Black people are never protected, and we’re definitely never served.”
Camm told reporters that he and the family — who are Black — wondered whether police would use so much force in a wealthier neighborhood with fewer Black residents, like Ballantyne or Myers Park.
“Regardless of where it is, this type of force shouldn’t be used in this city, this county or in this state,” added Camm.
The family wants to talk to CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings to ask for answers and seek policy change, Camm said.
“This family doesn’t want this to happen to anybody else, ever again,” he said.
Observer reporter Amanda Zhou contributed to this report.
