Court video shows CMPD officer shooting Gastonia officer she mistook for suspect
Video footage from the inside of a man’s garage showed the moment a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer fired her gun 10 times, injuring a Gastonia police officer while serving a warrant in 2019.
The unsealed videos showed officers, including former CMPD officer Heather Loveridge, swarming the home of a man who was accused of trafficking methamphetamine. It was part of an FBI operation.
Loveridge can be seen in the video firing her gun multiple times. She shot former officer Clarence Belton.
In footage , the suspect could be seen walking out of his garage with a trash bag toward his driveway. Another video, from the front of his home, showed him running back inside his home through his garage.
In the garage video, Loveridge is shown firing her gun in the garage where several officers were grouped near a door. The officers ran out and one appeared to limp out.
The videos were unsealed after judges in the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled a federal judge in Mecklenburg County.
District Court Judge Max Cogburn Jr. denied a request to unseal the video by Gray Media-owned WBTV in 2024. Cogburn said Loveridge’s right to a fair trial outweighed the media’s First Amendment right to access the footage.
But appellate judges disagreed, saying Loveridge did not “present any evidence, reasoning, or argument as to why specifically her right to a fair trial would be impacted.”
According to a lawsuit filed by Belton, Loveridge was “suspended and cited to the civil service board for termination” following reviews from the State Bureau of Investigation and CMPD’s Independent Shooting Review Board.
Belton was seriously injured in the shooting, but survived. He left law enforcement after.
Mecklenburg District Attorney Spencer Merriweather did not charge Loveridge.
