CMPD Releases Body-Cam Footage of Stabbing, Police Shooting

Nearly four months after a man was shot and killed by police after stabbing an officer in August, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has released the body-worn camera footage showing what happened during the altercation.

On August 20 just before 8 a.m., a woman called 911 from an apartment in the 300 block of West Tremont Avenue in South End, according to CMPD.

• In that same week, another officer shot and killed a person during an alleged domestic violence situation.

“I need police,” the woman said on the call. “Actually I need Medic.” As she was connected to Medic, a male voice began yelling incoherently and the woman started sobbing and screaming before the call was cut off.

What the footage showed

CMPD Central Division officers Tyler Bourque and Shawn McMichael responded to the call. Bourque was the first to arrive along with the Charlotte Fire Department. The footage shows him knocking on the door to the apartment in question and receiving no answer.

The next thing the first responders heard was screaming and a possible gunshot, according to the footage. McMichael arrived as a second gunshot was heard and the officers kicked down the door, which was barricaded. 

In the apartment, the two officers heard a woman screaming for help inside of a closed bedroom. When they entered, the suspect, 28-year-old Peter Corey, popped up from behind a piece of furniture with a handgun that he pointed at officers. 

“Please don’t hurt him!” the woman can be heard screaming. She repeatedly tells Corey to drop his gun.

CMPD officials described what happened next as erratic behavior. 

Corey dropped the gun and it clattered to the floor in the middle of the room. The man can be seen crawling toward the gun and making what sounds like growling noises.

Officer Bourque stepped toward the gun and Corey tackled him. The footage becomes distorted at this point and the camera falls off of Bourque’s uniform. 

McMichael rushed into the room and shoved Corey off of Bourque, then Corey pulled out a knife and stabbed McMichael in the head.

Bourque fired one shot at Corey.

“Oh my god, it’s the cops, what the fuck,” Corey said.

He was handcuffed and later pronounced dead at the scene.

“Don’t kill him, please don’t kill him, don’t kill him,” the woman said after the shot was fired. “He’s paranoid, he’s delusional it’s … some kind of psychotic break.”

Both officers yelled for CFD to enter to try to help both Corey and McMichael. The woman told them she had been shot in the arm.

“I don’t know what to do, I’m so scared,” she said.

McMichael sustained serious lacerations, according to CMPD officials. He and the woman, who is not identified, were both transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“Multiple firearms were recovered from inside the apartment,” CMPD said in its initial news release about the incident. Two handguns and two knives were found in the “immediate” vicinity of the bedroom where the crime occurred, according to CMPD Lt. Kevin Pietrus.

Bourque and McMichael were placed on paid administrative leave while the State Bureau of Investigations evaluated the incident, which CMPD said is standard procedure.

Chief Johnny Jennings responds

CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings said he was proud of McMichael and Bourque’s “lifesaving, heroic actions,”  in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday.

“Officers Bourque and McMichael rose to their training, putting their lives in extreme danger for the sake of the protection of innocent life,” Jennings said.

Corey had recently moved to Charlotte for work, according to his obituary. “His departure leaves a void that words cannot fill,” it said.

McMichael made a full recovery from his stab wound, CMPD said.