{"id":6065,"date":"2015-12-24T23:36:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-25T07:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/n-c-shoppers-dive-for-cover-off-duty-officer-kills-gunman\/"},"modified":"2015-12-24T23:36:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-25T07:36:00","slug":"n-c-shoppers-dive-for-cover-off-duty-officer-kills-gunman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/n-c-shoppers-dive-for-cover-off-duty-officer-kills-gunman\/","title":{"rendered":"N.C. Shoppers Dive For Cover; Off-Duty Officer Kills Gunman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:16px\">By  <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/12\/25\/460997670\/n-c-shoppers-dive-for-cover-off-duty-officer-kills-gunman?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=business\">Doreen McCallister<\/a><\/span>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/12\/25\/460997670\/n-c-shoppers-dive-for-cover-off-duty-officer-kills-gunman?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=business\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2015\/12\/25\/ap_136600980024-c2eab144aa3eafad514800030454cf4a7a79968e-s800-c15.jpg\" title=\"Authorities respond to the scene of a shooting at the Northlake Mall in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday.\" alt=\"Authorities respond to the scene of a shooting at the Northlake Mall in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday.\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Authorities respond to the scene of a shooting at the Northlake Mall in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday. <strong>Steve Reed\/AP<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong> <span>Steve Reed\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Police in Charlotte, N.C., say an argument between two groups of people who knew each other led to the death of an armed suspect.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Kerr Putney of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says a group of individuals with a history of feuding were at the Northlake Mall and got into an altercation shortly after 2 p.m. on Thursday, and gun shots were fired.<\/p>\n<p>An off-duty officer who was working at the mall heard the shots and responded to the scene, Putney says in a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/charmeck.org\/city\/charlotte\/CMPD\/newsroom\/Current\/Pages\/updatenorthlake.aspx\">written statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Putney adds the officer confronted the armed person who pointed a gun in his direction, and the officer then &#8220;fired his service weapon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Authorities says the suspect, who was identified as 18-year-old Daquan Westbrook, was given emergency aid, but medics pronounced him dead shortly afterward.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Putney says the officer was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. Names of those involved haven&#8217;t been released.<\/p>\n<p>Westbrook had a lengthy criminal record involving guns, drugs and violence, according to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article51512725.html\">The Charlotte Observer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Shopper Jake Wallace, 24, of Boone, N.C., was at the mall when he heard the commotion. He tells The Associated Press, &#8220;Chaos erupted as shoppers dove for cover or tried to get out of the door.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The mall was closed after the shooting. Christmas Eve shoppers were forced to go elsewhere or abandoned plans for last-minute gifts.<\/p>\n<p><em>This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service &#8211; if this is your content and you&#8217;re reading it on someone else&#8217;s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Source:: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/12\/25\/460997670\/n-c-shoppers-dive-for-cover-off-duty-officer-kills-gunman?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=business\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"N.C. Shoppers Dive For Cover; Off-Duty Officer Kills Gunman\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/12\/25\/460997670\/n-c-shoppers-dive-for-cover-off-duty-officer-kills-gunman?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=business<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/12\/25\/460997670\/n-c-shoppers-dive-for-cover-off-duty-officer-kills-gunman?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=business\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2015\/12\/25\/ap_136600980024-c2eab144aa3eafad514800030454cf4a7a79968e-s800-c15.jpg\" title=\"Authorities respond to the scene of a shooting at the Northlake Mall in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday.\" alt=\"Authorities respond to the scene of a shooting at the Northlake Mall in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday.\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Authorities respond to the scene of a shooting at the Northlake Mall in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday. <strong>Steve Reed\/AP<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong> <span>Steve Reed\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Police in Charlotte, N.C., say an argument between two groups of people who knew each other led to the death of an armed suspect.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Kerr Putney of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says a group of individuals with a history of feuding were at the Northlake Mall and got into an altercation shortly after 2 p.m. on Thursday, and gun shots were fired.<\/p>\n<p>An off-duty officer who was working at the mall heard the shots and responded to the scene, Putney says in a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/charmeck.org\/city\/charlotte\/CMPD\/newsroom\/Current\/Pages\/updatenorthlake.aspx\">written statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Putney adds the officer confronted the armed person who pointed a gun in his direction, and the officer then &#8220;fired his service weapon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Authorities says the suspect, who was identified as 18-year-old Daquan Westbrook, was given emergency aid, but medics pronounced him dead shortly afterward.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Putney says the officer was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. Names of those involved haven&#8217;t been released.<\/p>\n<p>Westbrook had a lengthy criminal record involving guns, drugs and violence, according to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article51512725.html\">The Charlotte Observer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Shopper Jake Wallace, 24, of Boone, N.C., was at the mall when he heard the commotion. He tells The Associated Press, &#8220;Chaos erupted as shoppers dove for cover or tried to get out of the door.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The mall was closed after the shooting. Christmas Eve shoppers were forced to go elsewhere or abandoned plans for last-minute gifts.<\/p>\n<p><em>This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service &#8211; if this is your content and you&#8217;re reading it on someone else&#8217;s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}