Corner store security video contradicts police narrative in Gastonia shooting
Days after officers shot and killed Derrick Manigault at a Gastonia corner store, local police said “false narratives” were circulating social media and released a statement to “provide more clarity.”
Officers shot Manigault after he walked into Jakob’s Food Mart on Jan. 10 “in an agitated state waiving a gun in his hand making threatening movements,” the Gastonia Police Department said in a news release on Jan. 13.
Now, newly released video and a report from the district attorney undermine that police narrative.
Gastonia police shooting video
Manigault, 43, had stopped by Jakob’s Food Mart on his way home, his wife told The Charlotte Observer in an interview. Surveillance video released by the Gastonia Police Department shows what happened in the last minutes of his life:
At 5:31 p.m., Manigault walked up to the store after tucking what looks to be a gun in his waistband. A man standing outside says something to him, but the security video’s audio does not clearly pick it up.
“I just said ‘What’s up, bro’ ... I just said ‘What’s up.’ That’s it,” Manigault said to the man. Manigault spent about 30 seconds arguing with him before going inside.
“What the f— wrong with you?” Manigault said as he pushed open the door. Video shows he did not walk into the store waving a gun, like police said he did.
He had been inside the store for 30 seconds when the man from outside followed. When Manigault saw him, he said: “I could have blessed you ... you missed out on a blessing.”
The man responds, but the store’s video equipment did not clearly pick it up.
“You trying to lose your life tonight?” Manigault asked the man three times before saying “You gotta leave me the f— alone.”
Manigault was inside the store for more than 30 seconds — and argued with the man for 20 of those seconds — before he pulled out what looked to be a gun. He held it at his side for about 10 seconds as he and the man kept talking. An undercover Gastonia Police ABC officer who was inside the store investigating underage alcohol sales watched.
The gun was fake. The nearby officer, who wore a baseball cap and t-shirt, didn’t know that.
Manigault turned to leave, without buying anything, just after at 5:32 p.m. When the officer shot, Manigault’s right hand was holding the toy gun and his left was on the door.
Manigault ran, the officer fired more rounds and an undercover sergeant who was waiting outside started to shoot, too, according to the district attorney’s report.
Later that night, Manigault died at a hospital.
Officials won’t charge police who killed Derrick Manigault
Gaston District Attorney Travis Page earlier this month announced he would not be charging the two officers who shot Manigault. After he released his report, the police department shared store surveillance footage and a statement from Chief Trent Conard.
“Any loss of life is tragic, but on the night of January 10, 2026, as seen in the video, it was Mr. Manigault who put this sequence of events into motion,” Conard said. “As the video depicts, Mr. Manigault’s gun was a realistic replica firearm. Our Officers acted quickly to protect themselves and the other citizens believing that Mr. Manigault’s weapon was real.”
Neither Conard nor Page have publicly named the officers, even though state law says police names are public record. Manigault’s family confirmed it was Gastonia Det. Cody Huffstetler and Sgt. Cody Edge who killed Manigault.
Page found that Detective C.H. (who the Observer has identified as Huffstetler) “believed that Manigault posed an immediate threat of death or serious bodily harm to those inside the store” when he saw the gun.
Page wrote that Sgt. C.E. (who the Observer has identified as Edge) told investigators he saw Manigault’s gun move up as he ran away, “which he interpreted as raising a firearm.” Edge shot as Manigault ran across the street and fell on a sidewalk.
In an interview with the Observer, Page acknowledged that the department’s initial claim that Manigault came into the store waving a gun was not correct. He also said he thought people “should take some comfort in the fact that we have moved in a direction in this community where our police are releasing video of incidents and becoming transparent.”
“In reviewing the Jakob’s Food Mart surveillance footage, some may (correctly) note that Manigault did not raise his ‘firearm’ and point it at Sanders before Detective C.H. discharged his firearm,” Page wrote. “However, while officers are not automatically justified in shooting a person merely because they are armed, it is also not necessary for a suspect to point a firearm at another individual to be reasonably perceived as a danger. In fact, it is lawful for an officer to take decisive action before waiting until it is too late.”
“The United States Constitution ‘does not require police to gamble with their lives in the face of a serious threat of harm,’” Page wrote.
When did officers shoot?
Manigault’s niece says the police and Page have shown a “failure of accountability and communication.”
“There wouldn’t be so many different versions of the story if the truth was being told,” she said in a Facebook post after the news releases with different times were posted. She spent months speaking at city meetings, talking to witnesses and trying to get the video herself.
On the day of the shooting, police said officers shot Manigault at 5:54 p.m. In later news releases, it said the shooting happened around 5:45 p.m.
Page’s report, though, says the shooting happened just after 5:30 p.m.
That’s in line with what video shows. Page, police and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation chalk up the discrepancies to presumed issues with the store’s equipment. The security recordings likely lagged behind the actual time, they said.
Gastonia Police Department’s internal investigation into the shooting is not yet complete, according to that statement.
In the last decade, the department has never found a use of force against a Black person unjustified, the Observer reported in 2025.
