Passenger shot by NC deputies called 911 for help during police chase, lawsuit says
A 32-year-old man in North Carolina was killed earlier this year when sheriff’s deputies fired into the vehicle he was riding in while trying to stop the driver from running them over, according to court filings and reports from law enforcement.
Now his family is suing.
Two Davidson County Sheriff’s deputies are accused of violating John Mark Hendrick Jr.’s constitutional rights during an officer-involved shooting on March 26, after an hours-long car chase spanning three counties, attorneys for Donna Faye Kiger, who is suing on Hendrick’s behalf, said in a lawsuit filed last week in federal court.
“We can’t comment on the facts of the case but hope the community can respect our client Ms. Kiger’s privacy in her time of grief. We are going to work hard to get justice for her family,” Kiger’s attorney John C. Vermitsky of Morrow Porter Vermitsky & Fowler PLLC told McClatchy News in a statement Monday.
The lawsuit doesn’t specify how Kiger and Hendrick are related. She is listed in the suit as the “administrator of the Estate of John Mark Hendrick, Jr.” However, an obituary for Hendrick published by the Winston-Salem Journal says Kiger is his mother.
A representative for the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
Police chase in stolen car
A report filed with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office described the incident as a “vehicle chase that concluded with an officer-involved shooting.”
The chase began around 2 a.m. when now 32-year-old Charles Justin Boothe reportedly sped up to “beat” a yellow light that had effectively turned red, according to the complaint filed Thursday in the Middle District of North Carolina. Hendrick was sitting in the front seat and 18-year-old Deven McKay Mathis was a passenger in the back, the lawsuit and incident report state.
The trio was riding in a stolen silver Mercedes SUV that had been reported missing from the Winston-Salem area, The Lexington Dispatch reported.
Forsyth County sheriff’s deputies attempted to pull the vehicle over for speeding in Clemmons, North Carolina, according to The Dispatch, but Boothe refused to stop.
The ensuing chase lasted “for several hours at relatively moderate speeds,” the lawsuit states. It spanned Forsyth, Guilford and Davidson counties, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s office said in a news release at the time, according to The Dispatch.
Attorneys for Hendrick’s estate said both passengers implored Boothe to stop from the start, but he reportedly “told them that he did not want to risk going back to prison.”
Hendrick and Mathis called 911 “at several points during the chase” seeking help, according to court filings.
“During these calls they begged for the deputies to back off long enough for Boothe to let them out of the car. Boothe himself even told the operator that if the deputies backed off enough to let them get out of the vehicle without him getting stopped, he would let the passengers out,” the lawsuit states. “No one acceded to these desperate requests.”
Davidson County sheriff’s deputies eventually stopped the vehicle in Linwood, WFMY reported.
They did so using a so-called pit maneuver in which deputies immobilized the car by intentionally crashing into it, according to the lawsuit.
Shots fired after chase
Attorneys for Hendrick’s estate said deputies “immediately began firing.”
But media outlets report Boothe first tried to run them over, and that’s when deputies started shooting.
Law enforcement officers were not hurt but Hendrick was “declared dead on the scene,” The Dispatch reported. He died “instantly” from a bullet to the forehead, according to the lawsuit.
“No warning was given before firing the deadly shots, nor was any attempt taken to avoid targeting the passengers who were clearly kept in the vehicle against their will,” the complaint states. Attorneys for Hendrick’s estate also added he “was in the passenger seat with his hands in the air” at the time he was shot.
Boothe was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and subsequently charged with felony assault on an officer and speeding to elude arrest, jail records show. He was issued a $100,000 bond.
Mathis was taken into custody but not charged, The Dispatch reported.
Officers involved in the incident
The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation identified the officers involved in April as Deputies Barry Lee Bartrug and Matthew Jacob Shelton, both of whom are listed in the lawsuit, The Greensboro News & Record reported.
Bartrug and Shelton were on administrative leave pending the results of the SBI investigation, according to The News & Record.
SBI spokesperson Anjanette Grube confirmed in an email to McClatchy News that the agency completed its investigation in July and submitted the case file to the District Attorney’s Office for review.
Davidson County District Attorney Garry Frank “will determine whether the use of deadly force was justified,” The Greensboro News & Record reported in April.
It was not immediately clear Monday whether the DA plans to file charges or if the deputies are still employed by the sheriff’s office.
Hendrick’s family accuses the deputies of using excessive force and are seeking at least $25,000 in damages as well as punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest and attorneys’ fees, according to court filings.
In an obituary published by the Winston-Salem Journal, Hendrick was described as “always happy” with a “heart of gold.”
“Mark knew how to bring life to everyone,” his obituary states.
