Gastonia police always justify use of force on Black residents, data shows
Update: In February 2026, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell dismissed Mackins’ lawsuit. He reasoned that “officers’ use of force was objectively reasonable and, in any event, is protected by the officers’ qualified immunity to engage in conduct which does not violate clearly established constitutional rights.”
Gastonia police logged nearly 700 incidents of use of force over a decadelong period. Just eight of those incidents — all of which involved white suspects — were labeled as “not justified.”
Micheal Littlejohn, an attorney for the mother of a 21-year-old Black man killed by Gastonia police officers in 2022, uncovered this data through public records requests.
In July, Littlejohn filed a lawsuit on her behalf against the city of Gastonia and the officers who fatally shot her son, alleging that their use of deadly force was unlawful. He also filed the lawsuit under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, alleging that police officers discriminated against the man because of his race.
Littlejohn stressed that there were roughly the same number of use of force complaints involving Black and white suspects, yet none of the incidents involving Black suspects were found to be “not justified.” Black people make up about 31% of the city’s population.
“Men lie, women lie — numbers don’t,” Littlejohn said, quoting rapper Jay-Z. “We just want equal footing. We want our use of force cases, our deadly encounter cases, just to be treated the same.”
Thelma Mackins, the mother of fatal shooting victim Jason Lipscomb, echoed her attorney. She said she hopes her lawsuit will lead to accountability for the officers who shot her son and policy changes at the Gastonia Police Department.
A spokesperson for the department declined to comment on the use of force data due to the pending lawsuit.
Four use of force experts told The Charlotte Observer that there is no database of outcomes of investigations into police use of force, making it difficult to place the Gastonia department’s use of force in a national context.
Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore police officer and a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, questioned the frequency of the Gastonia police’s use of deadly force, referring to it as a “slightly trigger-happy department.”
Between 2013 and 2022, the Gastonia Police Department reported 22 use of deadly force incidents. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, which serves roughly 10 times the population of Gastonia, reported 26 fatal shootings by police in the same time frame. CMPD’s publicly available use of force data does not specify if other kinds of force resulted in a death.
Shooting sparked attorney’s interest in use of force data
On July 20, 2022, Lipscomb picked up his one-year-old daughter from her daycare. He shared custody of the girl with Trinity Adams. He also picked up Adams’ two younger brothers, who attended the same daycare. Daycare employees said they were familiar with Lipscomb and that he often picked up the three children, according to the lawsuit.
The same day, Adams and her mother, Tina Adams, reported the alleged kidnapping of the two boys to the police. Officers soon arrived at Mackins’ home looking for Lipscomb and the three children. His father answered the door and spoke with the officers.
However, the lawsuit notes, Adams had already picked up her daughter from Lipscomb’s house before police arrived. And as officers waited outside Mackins’ house to speak with Lipscomb, they noticed Adams and her mother leaving with the two young boys who had been allegedly kidnapped.
While Lipscomb’s father spoke with the officers, Tina Adams noticed Lipscomb walking by the back of the house. She began to shout at him, her words peppered with expletives, prompting the officers to begin chasing him. Lipscomb ran from the officers and hopped into his parked car.
As Lipscomb backed out of the parking spot, an officer tried to enter the car’s passenger seat and got knocked to the ground by the car door, the lawsuit alleges. Three other officers at the scene began shooting Lipscomb as he drove away, fatally wounding him.
The officers shot a total of 35 rounds at Lipscomb, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. Western District of North Carolina.
“The scene was stark in its simplicity,” the lawsuit reads. “No warrant. No missing children. No weapon. No threat.”
Public records from the Gastonia Police Department did not list any discipline the officers faced for Lipscomb’s shooting. Two of the officers still work at the department; they have received a 17% and 18% raise, respectively, since the shooting.
The third officer left the department in December 2024. He now works for the Gaston County Police Department, according to an affidavit.
Mackins, who has lived in Gastonia since she was seven years old, expressed disillusionment with the police department. She emphasized that Lipscomb was a “good boy” who spent most of his time with his daughter, Jamira.
“Jason didn’t have a harmful bone in his body,” Mackins said about her son. “He never carried weapons… He wasn’t a kidnapper. He was a good young man, and a great father.”
Reporter Ryan Oehrli contributed.
This story was originally published August 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
