Family questions fatal shooting by Fayetteville officer

The family of a man killed in an officer involved shooting Thursday night is questioning whether the officer acted in self-defense.

Posted 3:14 a.m. Nov 28, 2008 — Updated 3:56 a.m. Nov 29, 2008

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The family of a man killed in an officer involved shooting Thursday night is questioning whether the officer acted in self-defense.

Shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday, police said, dispatchers sent Officer Michael Yount to investigate a report that shots had been heard in the area of Hawkins Drive and Lynn Avenue. Yount reported that he found a man, identified by relatives as 26-year-old Kenmara Davis, stumbling in the roadway there, officials said.

"He began to question the suspect. The gentleman pulled out a gun and fired shots, to which the officer in self defense fired back,” police spokeswoman Theresa Chance said.

Davis was killed.

Police put Yount on administrative duty and brought in the State Bureau of Investigation, both standard procedure when an officer shoots someone.

Davis’ sister, Larana Davis, doesn’t think her brother would have “made trouble.” She said he was planning to graduate from college next month and become a teacher.

Kenmara Davis did have several run-ins with police. He has four DWIs and served time on a gun violation, according to records.

“My brother was murdered, you know what I mean. And he did nothing. He did nothing,” Larana Davis said.

Neighbors said Kenmara Davis was running down the street from the officer when he was shot.

"It was obvious he had been shot in the back, because blood was all over his back,” neighbor Melvin Gray said.

Gray said he heard “rapid fire” at the time of the shooting. “To me it sounded like six to eight shots. It sounded like a machine gun,” he said.

Gray said the officer told him to get back inside because the suspect was armed, but neighbors said Kenmara Davis was already lying in the street at the time.

“The officer was acting to jittery and suspicious,” Gray said. “He was acting like he was covering it up.”

The Cumberland County District Attorney's office had cleared Yount earlier this month in a June incident in which Yount shot a man in the leg after several men attacked Yount's K-9 partner.

Larana Davis said she wants Yount to “go to jail” or be kicked off the force.

In an unrelated shooting, police said a man was found shot to death at Cambridge Arms Apartments, 301 Barcelona Drive, off North McPherson Church Road, early Friday. Officers answered a shooting call there and found a man shot to death in Apartment 36-B, police said. They ruled it a homicide. Police withheld the victim's name in the murder case until they could notify the victim's relatives.

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