Body camera videos released Wednesday show Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers shooting an armed man while his pregnant hostage crawls to safety. Johnathan Autry, 28, survived the Sept. 25, 2017 shooting, and he is still in Mecklenburg County Jail. He’s been charged with kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon, among other offenses. The three officers who shot Autry were all placed on paid administrative leave after the shooting, but the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office found they acted lawfully, CMPD said. Police said Autry broke into the pregnant woman’s home on Holly Street, off Beatties Ford Road in north Charlotte, and asked for money. When officers arrived at the house, they found him holding her at gunpoint. On video, the officers repeatedly told Autry to drop the gun before shooting him. “I’m pregnant!” the woman said in the officers’ body camera video, just before Autry was shot. In September, CMPD said the woman managed to separate her body from Autry’s before the officers fired their guns. The videos showed her drop her body to the ground and crawl to safety while officers shot Autry.
“I’m dying!” Autry said in the videos. “Listen, we’re not going to let you die,” one officer said. “But you’ve got to work with us.” Officers demanded to see his hands and asked where the gun was, according to the videos. A minute after shots were fired, one officer announced he’d found the gun by his foot. Just over 90 seconds after Autry was shot, the officers lifted him into a clearing to provide medical help. Autry was in critical but stable condition in the hospital the day after the shooting, police said at the time. Police said the break-in was not random, because Autry mentioned the pregnant woman’s husband by name. The husband wasn’t home at the time. The woman was taken to the hospital as a precaution, but she wasn’t hurt.
