Officers Won’t Face Charges in Police Killing of Sanrico McGill

Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather concluded his office’s review of a police shooting that killed Sanrico McGill at his home on Catherine Simmons Avenue in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of north Charlotte last year. 

In a 13–page statement letter released on Tuesday, Merriweather announced that no charges will be filed against the police officers who shot McGill.   

Merriweather’s letter clarifies that his office is not tasked with addressing issues relating to tactics or whether officers followed correct police procedures or CMPD directives, only that, “No available evidence in this case would enable the State to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that these officers did not act in defense of others.”

Based on eyewitness testimony compiled by the NC State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) from McGill’s two brothers, who were there at the time of the shooting, as well as the officers involved in the incident, the letter tells the story of a man struggling with a mental health crisis and a family that tried to help him but couldn’t. 

McGill’s brothers told investigators that they tried to get him committed to a hospital on the day before the shooting. McGill, 34 at the time of his death, had been diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia at the age of 25, leading to bouts of psychosis that occurred once or twice a year. 

One of the officers who shot at McGill on Dec. 16, 2023, recalled to investigators that he had assisted taking McGill into custody for an involuntary commitment order in the summer just months before the shooting, adding that “there was no use of force or struggle to take the decedent into custody.” 

“He recalled that the decedent was ‘passive-resistant,’ but they were able to take him into custody without incident,” Merriweather’s letter stated of how the officer recollected his own experience with McGill’s involuntary commitment order in summer 2023. 

One of McGill’s brothers told SBI investigators that McGill had gone through three or four commitments and that each one “had gone smoothly.” 

On Dec. 15, when one of McGill’s brothers drove their mother to the magistrate to seek an involuntary commitment order, they were informed that it could take law enforcement up to 24 hours to serve the order. A brother described the night of Dec. 15 as “restless for everyone,” as McGill continued to talk to himself, open and shut doors, and yell repeatedly. 

At approximately 6:13 a.m. on the following day, police responded to a shots-fired call at the duplex where McGill lived with his two brothers and their mother. McGill’s mother made the call, stating that she had heard approximately five gunshots and believed her son was the person shooting. 

McGill’s brother would later tell investigators that some unknown person fired two to three shots from the area of the park near their house, to which McGill responded by going outside and firing two to three shots from his own gun into the air. 

McGill’s mother informed the 911 operator that she had recently completed involuntary commitment paperwork on her son and was waiting for CMPD to serve him with the paperwork and take him for treatment.

Upon arrival at the residence, officers were met by McGill’s family members, who informed the officers that McGill was inside and not mentally well. Using a loudspeaker, officers called for McGill to come outside, which he did “in an extremely agitated state, yelling from the front porch and the steps to his residence,” according to statements. 

According to timestamps on body-camera footage recorded by one of the involved officers, McGill was only outside for about a minute before he went back in, then came back out about five seconds later holding a gun. 

According to multiple witness testimonies and body-worn camera footage, McGill appeared to rack the slide of the gun, readying it to fire, then pointed it in the direction of his brother, who was still standing at the base of the front porch steps — all while officers yelled at him to drop the weapon. 

Four officers opened fire on McGill, firing a total of 25 rounds at him. He was struck twice, once in the right hip and once in the left side of the chest, with the latter believed to be the fatal shot. 

All of the involved officers told investigators they fired because they feared that McGill was about to shoot his brother or someone else on the property. McGill’s gun was later found to be empty, the magazine lying on the sidewalk just off the porch. 

After he was struck, McGill fell, then crawled back into his residence, where he died. Officers did not render medical aid “because the officers had to make sure they were not walking into an ambush inside the residence.” 

“The officers on scene could not and did not know that the decedent’s firearm was no longer loaded,” concluded Merriweather’s letter. “As such, it was entirely reasonable for [the involved officers] to believe that [McGill] posed an imminent threat of great bodily harm or death to his brother when he appeared to rack the firearm and point it in his brother’s direction … Accordingly, the State will not pursue criminal charges related to the death of Sanrico Sanchez McGill.”

Read more: Some Health Providers Endanger Patients by Ignoring Psychiatric Advance Directives (2023)