Charlotte settles with man shot by officer while leaving CLT airport parking lot
The city of Charlotte paid a man $120,000 to settle the lawsuit he filed after an officer shot him as he drove away from an airport parking lot.
Xyavier Calliste was in an employee lot at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on a late July 2018 night, and he was not authorized to be there. When Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Officer Xeng Lor came to the lot, responding to a trespass call, Calliste drove away.
Lor shot twice at Calliste, who was then 20 years old.
Charlotte City Attorney Andrea Leslie-Fite signed the settlement on March 23, nearly eight years after the shooting. The city recently provided the dollar amount to The Charlotte Observer.
A legal battle took the case in front of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Last year, the court kicked the case back to Charlotte’s federal court for trial and said Lor probably used an unconstitutional level of force when he shot as the car drove away.
The Fourth Circuit — one of the second-highest courts in the country — has established that shooting at a fleeing car while the officer is no longer in the car’s trajectory is an unconstitutional use of deadly force.
Lor said he shot his gun because he believed Calliste was going to run him over. But body camera video showed — and a federal judge in Charlotte found — that Calliste’s car had already passed by the officer when he fired.
CMPD’s internal investigation found that Lor used an excessive amount of deadly force, Fourth Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker, of West Virginia, revealed during the appellate hearing in May 2025.
Lor, an officer of 20 years, had to do a two-week ride-along with a training office, a week of remedial training and a month of unpaid leave.
The city and CMPD did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
