Charlotte woman was locked in room for 5 days before police shooting, report shows
An officer who shot and killed a woman after she opened fire inside her home will not be criminally charged, Mecklenburg County’s District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.
Brenda Donahue, 60, was shot and killed by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer in her home last August when police arrived to serve involuntary commitment order paperwork — a procedure followed when a judge deems a person in mental health distress a danger to themselves or others. They planned to take Donahue to the hospital.
Donahue’s husband told authorities she locked herself in her room and had been drunk for five days, new information unveiled through interviews included in the DA’s report confirms.
Video footage from a police body-worn camera showed Donahue shot through her bedroom door at the two officers within moments of the officers entering the home. Her first shot hit a police officer who was standing outside Donahue’s bedroom door, attempting to talk with her.
The officer was not injured as the bullet lodged in her body-worn camera equipment, which kept the bullet from hitting her chest. Once Donahue fired, the two officers quickly retreated down a narrow set of stairs in the home, away from the bedroom. A second officer shot Donahue in the head after she’d fired again from behind the door and emerged on the stairs, holding a gun and pointed it at an officer, the investigation showed.
She died at a nearby hospital six days later.
Charlotte police shootings
The DA’s office confirmed last week officers who shot and killed a man after identifying him as a suspect in a Food Lion theft will not be criminally charged. The fatal shooting happened last June on Tuckaseegee Road. The DA’s report said one of the officers fired first at Kevin Eugene Boston, which conflicted with previous statements from the police department that the officers were returning fire. Boston reached for a gun in his waistband before the officer fired, according the the report.
Last month, officers shot at a man in northeast Charlotte as they prepared to serve involuntary commitment papers. He was actively shooting toward the back of the house when officers shot him, according to CMPD. North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the officer-involved shooting.
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 4:16 PM.
