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On March 15, Union County Police killed Malcolm Staton. He was 30 years old.
On Friday, Staton’s family demanded answers from the Union County Sheriff’s Office after he was shot in front of his girlfriend and children, as reported by the Charlotte Observer.
Malcolm Staton’s family wants to know what happened.
“His life was tragically taken away from him and I want answers,” Staton’s mother, J’on, said during a news conference in front of the Union County Courthouse. “I want to know why you did what you did to my child.”
On March 15, a Union County deputy attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a sedan parked at the Sunny Food Mart at 1800 Walkup Ave. in Monroe, North Carolina, according to the Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook post.
The Sheriff’s Office states that the driver, Staton, attempted to flee by using his car to strike at least three deputy vehicles involved in the heavy-handed traffic stop.
Before Staton could drive away, a deputy shot him, the Union County Sheriff’s Office claims. Deputies provided first aid until Staton was taken to a hospital, according to the Sheriff’s Office. He died on March 17, according to Monroe Police.
Police shot into the car with kids inside.
Four people were in the car with Staton at the time of the shooting — his girlfriend, Cree Faulkner, as well as the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, 11-year-old son and another child, according to one of the family’s attorneys, Shean Williams. Neither Faulkner nor the children were injured during the incident, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Like many instances of police-involved deaths, the victims are not solely the ones who were killed, but those who witnessed the brutality. The emotional damage from the shooting remains with Faulkner and her children. “They can’t sleep at night,” she said. “We’re all traumatized and it’s nothing they will ever heal from.”
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is conducting an independent investigation into the shooting and the deputies involved are on administrative leave, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Williams and other attorneys from the Cochran Firm, which is representing the Staton family, also are conducting an investigation. The firm was founded in 1983 by the well-known defense attorney Johnnie Cochran.
Regardless of the legal implications, potential jail time for officers involved, or city settlement with the family, it will never bring back the life of Malcolm Staton, the all too young life which they will forever mourn in remembrance.
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