North Carolina deputies claimed they shot and killed an innocent Black man because he struck three of their patrol cars as he tried to drive away from them after they tried to stop him for alleged drugs in his car in 2022.
But Malcolm Staton, 30, who was driving the car with his girlfriend in the passenger’s seat and three children in the back seat, had no drugs or guns in the car when Union County sheriff’s deputies killed him.
On Monday, September 23, a federal judge approved a $3.25 million settlement to Staton’s family.
“I don’t think nobody is prepared to see their father get killed,” Staton’s girlfriend, Cree Faulkner, said in a news conference about a month after the shooting.
“Especially not a 2-year-old girl who had to see her dad’s blood splattered on his face.”
The money will be divided among Staton’s mother, J’on Staton, the manager of his estate, his three children and Faulkner, according to WCNC-TV.
“It was incredibly reckless of deputies to shoot into Staton’s vehicle with innocent children and his girlfriend present,” Shean Williams, the attorney from the Cochran Firm, who represented the family, told local media.
Despite the cops wearing body cameras and using dash cameras in their cars, the videos were never released to the public under a judge’s order, which is the only way police videos can be legally released to the public under state law.
The only video that was made public comes from a gas station surveillance camera showing a deputy in an unmarked truck striking his car from behind. The actual shooting was not captured on video because it happened outside the frame of the video.
“This is something no mother should have to go through,” said Staton’s mother in the 2022 press conference.
“I can’t even put it into words the pain, the lack of sleep, the lack of appetite. Just your mind going in a million different directions. Why did this happen to my child?”
‘No Firearms or Illegal Drugs Were Found on Mr. Staton’
The incident took place on March 15, 2022, at around 7 p.m. after Staton and his family pulled into the Sunny Food Mart gas station and convenience store to make some purchases.
Staton walked into the store while his girlfriend and the children remained inside the car.
Meanwhile, the Union County Sheriff’s Office was conducting an undercover drug investigation at the gas station and determined Staton looked “suspicious” to them — but three years later, they have yet to explain what made him suspicious.
The surveillance video shows an unmarked car with flashing blue lights pulling up to the passenger side of the Honda that Staton was driving that night, and a man stepping out.
Staton then backs up his car, but another unmarked car pulls up behind him, which is when Staton starts driving forward and around the first deputy’s car.
That was when another deputy, who had been watching from across the street, pulled up in his unmarked car, pulling in front of Staton’s car as a fourth deputy in an unmarked pickup truck struck his car from behind.
The deputies involved in the shooting, who are all listed as defendants in the lawsuit, are Christopher J. Hicks, Nicholas J. Kirkley, Christopher B. Little, and Corey J. Williams, who were all driving unmarked cars that night when they tried to detain Staton for drugs he did not have.
Kirkley, who fired the shots that killed Staton, resigned in September 2024 while under investigation for “instances of criminal activity in which you repeatedly engaged in prostitution services from 2020 through summer 2024 and were initially untruthful in the internal affairs investigation,” according to WBTV news.
According to the lawsuit:
Upon information and belief, Defendants HICKS, WILLIAMS, LITTLE and KIRKLEY, were participating in an undercover drug investigation and suspected that MR. STATON had drugs on his person or in the vehicle which is why they attempted to detain him.
As Defendant KIRKLEY fired multiple shots into the Honda, his actions were not for the purpose of protecting himself, other officers, or civilian bystanders from being struck by the Honda, but was for the purpose of stopping and detaining MR. STATON, based on an unjustified suspicion that he possessed drugs.
Following this incident, no firearms or illegal weapons were found on MR. STATON, nor were any illegal drugs found in the vehicle.
‘None of This is OK’
Although the shooting takes place outside of the frame of the surveillance video, it is evident he was trying to avoid the deputies in the unmarked cars rather than strike them as the Union County Sheriff’s Office reported on Facebook the day after the shooting.
As the deputy initiated the traffic stop, the driver of the suspect vehicle attempted to flee by using his vehicle to strike at least three UCSO deputy vehicles involved with the traffic stop.
During the flight attempt, a UCSO deputy discharged his duty-issued firearm striking the driver of the suspect vehicle. Deputies on scene rendered first aid and the suspect was ultimately transported to Atrium Main for further medical treatment.
At the time of the shooting, the suspect vehicle was occupied by multiple parties but the only party injured was the driver. The UCSO deputies involved in this incident were not injured.
Most people commenting on the Facebook post were celebrating the shooting, thanking deputies for keeping them safe, believing that Staton was a menace to society when online court records show he mostly had traffic violations in the past, including speeding, reckless driving, failure to wear a seatbelt, driving without insurance or registration, as well as a littering citation.
“Maybe the criminal should listen and not try and flee with intent to hurt and destroy,” said one commenter. “Thank you Union County officers for risking your life everyday for our community.”
But a handful of commenters were much more skeptical.
“Right now it appears that your officers caused property damage to a parked car with minors inside, scared the hell out of a father, and fired shots without clear line of sight into a moving vehicle with multiple passengers,” said one commenter.
“None of this is OK nor justifiable. Regardless of what the man was accused of, it doesn’t appear a capital crime occurred and yet (deputies) moved in with deadly force and reckless endangerment. So what happened here?”
Watch the surveillance video below.
Great Job Carlos Miller & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
