On Saturday, Jan. 8, Jason Walker was killed by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy in Fayetteville. It was a month after his 37th birthday.

The Cumberland County deputy, Jeffrey Hash, shot Walker multiple times after an incident in which Hash’s truck and Walker’s body made contact on a street near Walker’s family home. Hash told the 911 operator that Walker, who is Black, was unarmed. Hash is not in custody, was not arrested, and has no charges pressed against him at this time.

This is the 10th NC SBI investigation into an officer-involved shooting in a year. There have been three officer-involved shootings in the Triangle this month. In April 2021, Elizabeth City gained national attention after law enforcement officers fatally shot Andrew Brown Jr. as he drove away from them. No charges were brought against the officers.

That recent history and the disproportionate killing of Black men by law enforcement has contributed to family members and others worrying that Hash might not be brought to justice. Unlike Brown’s killing, Cumberland District Attorney Billy West has already said he’s deferring to a special prosecution from the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys. That’s good.

But differing accounts raise questions about what happened Saturday. Given deep-rooted distrust of police in communities of color, the special prosecution and Cumberland Sheriff’s office must be transparent about their investigation, as well as about whether Hash was handled differently than any citizen might have been.

The accounts of what happened diverge quickly. Hash’s story, and the one Fayetteville police recorded in their report, was that Walker jumped on Hash’s car and started beating the windshield, ultimately cracking it. Hash said he feared for his family, so he shot Walker.

Elizabeth Ricks, who was driving with her husband when the incident happened, says Hash hit Walker with his car as he crossed the street. Ricks, a trauma nurse, is shown in a Facebook video trying to save Walker’s life. Ricks says her testimony – and her husband’s – was briefly taken by an officer.

In the video, Hash stands to the side while Ricks tries to stop the bleeding with towels and neighbors try to see what’s happening. A small voice in the background asks, “Is he dying?”

Hash was taken into custody and questioned. His car was towed as evidence, and his weapons were seized by the police department. He is currently on leave from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, an action the sheriff announced the Monday after the incident.

“Even though this was not an officer-involved shooting, it was a shooting that involved someone who was a law enforcement officer,” Fayetteville Police Chief Gina Hawkins said in a press conference.

This is true, and such shootings naturally raise questions about whether law enforcement and the local districts attorneys who investigate can do so impartially. Under current law, the local DA can handle the case of a police shooting, as happened in Elizabeth City. DAs also can hand off cases to a district attorney in another county, or they can ask the Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor.

A better solution: N.C. law should require that a special prosecutor automatically handles all fatal police shootings. Such a system would serve police, and it would give the public and families of victims more confidence in justice.

For now, in Cumberland County, there are mostly questions. Why did Hash, who was likely trained in de-escalating situations, shoot someone instead of driving away? Why do Hash and Ricks’s stories vary so much? Was Walker crossing the street, or trying to jump on Hash’s truck?

Some questions may never be answered, and only known to Walker, Hash, and Hash’s wife. But one thing is clear: Jason Walker was alive Saturday morning, and dead by Saturday afternoon. We hope the answers become clearer, too.

— The Charlotte Observer