Pineville PD Releases Footage of Dennis Bodden Police Killing
Unarmed man was followed by off-duty officer after shoplifting call
In response to petitions from Dennis Bodden’s mother and the Charlotte Observer, the Pineville Police Department on Saturday released body-worn camera footage of an incident that ended with an off-duty Pineville PD sergeant shooting and killing Bodden in an apartment complex parking lot in May.
The incident began when Pineville PD sergeant Adam Roberts, working security in the McMullen Creek Market shopping center in Pineville in an off-duty capacity, confronted Bodden in the parking lot of a Food Lion where a call had come in alleging that Bodden had stolen wine and some produce.
The footage shows that the entire interaction took about five minutes, as Roberts confronts Bodden, who ignores him and continues to walk across Johnston Road into the Berkshire Place apartment complex in Charlotte.
WARNING: The footage below is graphic, as it shows a man being shot and killed.
Bodden remains unresponsive to Roberts’ commands for much of the interaction, except for when Roberts tries to tackle him in the median of Johnston Road, during which time Bodden apparently bites Roberts, who deploys his Taser on Bodden. After being hit with the Taser, Bodden stands and continues to calmly walk toward the complex.
Roberts continues to follow Bodden into the apartment complex until on-duty Pineville PD officer Randall Downs arrives, at which time Roberts blocks Bodden’s path and the two begin to push on each other, with at least one punch being thrown. Bodden then runs at Downs, who deploys his Taser and yells, “Get him, get him.” Bodden then turns around and runs back at Roberts.
The two grapple for a moment before Roberts pulls his service weapon and shoots Bodden three times, hitting him in the chest and stomach, it appears.
It’s not clear on the video that Bodden reached for Roberts’ gun, which is what Roberts claimed as the reason he shot Bodden. However, in July, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather released a letter following the conclusion of CMPD’s investigation, which found the shooting to be justified.
Merriweather agreed, stating that no charges would not be filed against Roberts.
“It is clear from Sergeant Roberts’ body-worn camera footage that, at the moment Sergeant Roberts fired his gun, the decedent was either reaching for Sergeant Roberts’ gun or, at least, could rationally have been perceived by a reasonable officer as reaching for his gun,” states Merriweather. “This perception is further supported by at least one civilian witness, who suggested—rightly or wrongly—that Sergeant Roberts had ‘no other choice.'”
Read more: Officers Won’t Face Charges in Police Killing of Sanrico McGill
In the video, after Bodden is shot, he walks into a grassy area and falls, where he’s handcuffed.
At the 6:48 mark, officer Downs says to Roberts, “You’re good … we got him … the good guys always win.”
At the 7:30 mark, someone can be heard over the officers’ radio asking, “has anyone been hit by gunfire,” to which Roberts responds, “negative.”
At around the 9:50 mark, Bodden tells Roberts and Downs, “I think I’m having a panic attack,” followed about 20 seconds later with, “I ain’t a bad guy.”
In a release from the Pineville Police Department on May 15, they stated that Dennis Bodden was “very well known to Pineville Police as being a chronic shoplifting suspect at this Food Lion and having violent tendencies toward police and the public,” due to past shoplifting calls, though officers call him “Mr. Massey” throughout the video.
In a second statement from the Pineville Police Department on June 3, they claimed they “were NOT aware of any mental health concerns regarding Dennis Bodden … We only had one documented contact with Mr. Dennis Bodden on 04/03/2024 which he was banned from this Food Lion.”
In that statement, the department claims that both officers are Critical Incident Team certified through Mecklenburg County and internally trained under Integrating Communications Assessments and Tactics. ICAT is a de-escalation model created by the Police Executive Research Forum, according to the statement.
In 2020, Roberts was one of two officers that fired 12 rounds at Timothy Caraway, striking him with four, after Caraway removed a firearm from his pocket as instructed by the officers, as reported by the Charlotte Observer.
Bodden was a senior attorney who worked with people struggling with mental illness at the Mental Hygiene Legal Service in New York from 2015 to 2019. His mother, Cleopatra Bodden, has said the officers involved in killing her son should have been more aware of his mental condition and done more to de-escalate the situation.
Read more about the life of Dennis Bodden in this WFAE feature from June 7.
p
