Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have released the audio tape of radio traffic from the morning of July 20th, when a CMPD officer shot and killed Wayne Furr, a cell tower technician.The three minute audio tape contains the voices of the three officers who were on the scene that morning. Shortly after the police called in the license plate of the vehicle, shots can be heard in the background. Moments later, officers called for paramedics several times.
"We got one shot!" an officer is heard exclaiming. "We'll need a supervisor and crime scene out here." Police also told dispatch that medic would need to hurry.
Gary Herald talked to 6NEWS from Cookeville, TN. He has 22 years experience working on communication towers. "We know exactly what happened here,” Herald said. “He couldn’t see or hear the police officer. He just heard some yelling and came toward the door with his gun raised."
Herald said there are strong blowers in the tower which are very important to keep the equipment cool, but it also means people can’t hear the person next to them. He said the lighting makes it difficult to see outside. "It’s an unfortunate freak accident,” Herald said. “It was a double edge sword. I don’t think you can hold the officer at fault and I don’t think you can hold the technician at fault. He didn’t know what hit him."Police will be doing a re-enactment of the shooting to see if the lighting or the noise from the industrial air conditioners affected Furr and whether he could determine that Payne was a police officer. Family and friends of Furr have said he would never have knowlingly pointed his gun at a police officer.
Links:
* Audio: Raw audio from fatal police shooting (News 6)
* Video: Police Release Audio Tapes from Fatal Police Shooting (News 6)
* Article: Audio Tape From Police Shooting Released (WSOC-TV)
* Article: Police release audio tapes from fatal cop shooting (News 6)