The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has identified one of the five officers who shot at a murder suspect killed during an arrest attempt a week ago in the parking lot of the Speedway convenience store in Clemmons.
Detective Paul Weis of the Violent Criminal Apprehension Team with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department fired his weapon in the parking lot, police said in a news release.
The Greensboro Police Department has not identified the four officers from its department but said in a news release last week that all four are on administrative duty pending an internal investigation, which is standard procedure in such cases. It did name an officer who was injured in the shooting, Michael J. Ambrosio, but the department has not said whether he fired his gun.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Weis has been placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard policy when an officer fires a gun in the line of duty. The State Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation into the shooting while the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Internal Affairs conducts an internal investigation. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said it would not release any additional information.
People are also reading…
Alexander Weah was shot to death shortly after 8 a.m. Aug. 5 at the Speedway convenience store. A large number of law enforcement officers from Greensboro, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the SBI and Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office had converged at the convenience store to serve a murder warrant in a Charlotte killing.
A K-9 officer works the scene of an officer-involved shooting at the Speedway on Lewisville-Clemmons Road in Clemmons on Aug. 5. Greensboro police have said they will not release the names of the officers involved, although they have done so in previous fatal shootings as recently as last year.
Greensboro police said in a statement that on Aug. 5, officers “made contact with the suspect while he was exiting the gas station” and that as officers approached, “an exchange of gunfire occurred.”
Weah
“During the exchange of gunfire, the suspect fired his weapon, striking Greensboro Police Officer M.J. Ambrosio,” the report reads. “The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.”
However, Talaya Hinson, who described herself as Weah’s fiancée, said Weah ran and was shot by an officer twice before he reached for his own weapon and fired.
Hinson said officers told her the day of the shooting that they fired on Weah because they saw he had a gun.
Despite multiple requests, the Greensboro Police Department said it will not release the names of the four officers. In the past, it has identified officers who have shot people. Three days after a fatal shooting last year, police released the names of the two officers who shot a man authorities said was assaulting a third officer.
The Winston-Salem Police Department and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office have routinely released the names of officers who have shot and killed people in the line of duty.
The Greensboro Police Department has not said why it will not identify the four officers in the Clemmons shooting.
Winston-Salem Journal Talaya Hinson sits in a booth at the Waffle House with her son, Christopher Little, as she watches law enforcement officers investigate the shooting and death of her fiancé, Alex Weah, at the Speedway on Lewisville-Clemmons Road.
Talaya Hinson is the estranged wife of the man Weah is accused of killing in Charlotte. According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, Weah was wanted in the shooting death of 31-year-old James Michael Hinson on Aug. 3. In an interview with Winston-Salem Journal, Talaya Hinson confirmed that Weah shot Michael Hinson during a confrontation between the two men.
She said Michael Hinson, who was white, threatened to put Weah “in a body bag” and called Weah, who was Black, a racial slur. She said Weah shot Michael Hinson in the chest when he thought Michael Hinson was reaching for a weapon. No gun was found on Michael Hinson’s body.
She told the Winston-Salem Journal that Weah was planning to turn himself in to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police on the same day he was fatally shot by officers.
