Road Rage Leads To Officer Involved Shooting

CHARLOTTE, NC– “We’re accustomed to this, this should not be the normal, but that’s what it is, this is the normal and it’s sad,” said one East Charlotte resident who didn’t want to be identified.

People living near Albemarle Road in East Charlotte gathered outside the crime tape which blocked traffic near Farm Pond lane for hours after a deadly officer-involved shooting.

“That’s what it appears, that we have a road rage incident that unfortunately turned out to be tragic,” said CMPD Deputy Chief, Jeff Estes.

Deputy Chief Jeff Estes says 28-year-old Josue Javier Diaz sideswiped an unmarked police car on Albemarle Road around 1:15 Thursday afternoon. The detective followed the car calling communications for backup. He says Diaz abruptly stopped his truck in front of him and got out with a gun posing a direct threat.

“Driver got out of vehicle produced a handgun and shots were fired from the undercover detective,” said Estes.

“What a lot of people don’t realize or understand is you just can’t pull a gun on somebody and not expect them to react regardless if he was an undercover cop or not,” said East Charlotte resident, Carlton Frazier.

A crowd of protesters gathered yelling at police calling it excessive force without knowing the circumstances.

“I understand people do wrong but honestly we don’t know exactly what’s happening but it doesn’t take six bullets to stop somebody that’s all I’m going to say,” said an onlooker.

CMPD has not said how man bullets were fired. Others defend the officer’s actions.

“When there’s a threat you have to react this guy has to save his own life so he didn’t know if he was going to start shooting at him or not and they’re not trained to shoot to harm, they’re trained to shoot to kill,” said Frazier.