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Prosecutor clears police in NC man’s fatal shooting
Original Publication Date: December 13, 2016 12:33AM
Publication Updated: April 27, 2025 2:33AM
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Prosecutors have cleared two North Carolina police officers who shot and killed a man wanted for shooting and wounding a bus passenger.
District Attorney Andrew Murray said in a report Monday that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Officers Garret Tryon and Michael Bell were justified in shooting 18-year-old Rodney Rodriguez Smith on June 2. Police say Smith fired at them first as they pursued him for allegedly shooting a man on the bus who he thought had robbed his grandmother’s house.
Police said Tryon had told Smith to show his hands, but Smith instead fired at the officers, who returned fire, killing him.
Murray concluded the officers shot in self-defence.
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