Officer kills man after woman reports assault

RAMPAGE, ATTACK ON GIRLFRIEND END WITH CLOSE-RANGE SHOOTING

Saturday, September 23, 2006

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

HICKORY -- The girlfriend of a man killed by a Hickory police officer praised the officer Friday for protecting her and her baby.

Officer Melissa Hildebrand killed Garry Wayne McCloud, 51, Thursday night after responding to a call at Ridgeview apartment complex in southeast Hickory, police said.

Hildebrand, who has worked as an officer since April, is on administrative leave with pay until the State Bureau of Investigation and Hickory Police Department complete their investigations, police said.
Linda Andrews, 31, told the Observer she was holding her baby Thursday night when McCloud, her boyfriend of two years, kicked through a window. Andrews said McCloud threw a chair at her, and she had to lift her arm to protect their 1-year-old daughter. She said she handed her child to a friend just in time.

"(He) knocked me down from behind," Andrews said, "and starting hitting my head on the ground."

Andrews said she called police about 6 p.m., as McCloud was thrashing through the living room, kitchen and upstairs bedroom of her apartment. By the time Hildebrand got there eight minutes later, Maj. Tom Adkins said, McCloud had left.

Andrews said Hildebrand, 33, had been at her apartment for only a couple of minutes when McCloud returned. He rounded the corner of the complex's parking lot in his pickup truck and smashed into Andrews' 1996 Buick.

McCloud then got out of the truck, Andrews said, and began yelling and walking toward them. Andrew's friend Maresia Covington, who was with Andrews when she called police, said McCloud was visibly agitated and hostile.

"The way it looked to me, he wanted to take the gun from the officer and kill (Andrews)," Covington said.

Hildebrand told McCloud to stop approaching, Adkins said. Covington and Andrews said McCloud stopped only briefly before coming toward the group again.

Then, they said, Hildebrand forcefully told McCloud to lay on the ground, pulling out the 9 mm semi-automatic handgun from her holster. McCloud continued to walk toward Hildebrand. Covington recalls Hildebrand backing up and repeatedly yelling, "Sir, I don't want to have to shoot you."

McCloud was within five feet of Hildebrand when the officer pulled the trigger, Adkins said.

Andrews said she heard two shots before McCloud fell to the ground. Andrews ran around the corner of the apartment and said she recalls hearing three more shots.

Adkins would not say how many shots were fired or where the bullets penetrated McCloud's body.

Adkins said Hickory police officers are trained to "defend themselves reasonably." They do not have specific guidelines saying an officer must first see a weapon, where to aim or when to shoot, he said. Officers carry a baton and pepper spray in addition to a gun, he said.

"The key is to take the force necessary to stop the threat, whatever that might be," Adkins said. "Every situation is different. Every person is different. You can't say `aim here.' "

Backup officers were on the way to the apartment when McCloud was shot, Adkins said.

Court records show McCloud had been arrested twice for assault on a female, and he appeared in court Monday for striking Andrews in July. The district judge released him on a 60-day suspended sentence and two years' probation.

Police would not say whether McCloud was armed, but Andrews said her boyfriend didn't carry a weapon. Still, Andrews said, she was worried McCloud, who did not live at the apartment, would kill her and hurt her children.

Andrews and Covington said they are collecting money from other residents to send Hildebrand flowers as a thank-you.

"(Hildebrand) saved our lives," Andrews said. "She saved me and my babies."



All content © THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
and may not be republished without permission.