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DA: Officers won't face charges in fatal shooting of Durham man

The police officer who fatally shot a Durham man during a chase in February will not face charges, according to the district attorney.

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DURHAM, N.C. — Three police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a Durham man during a chase in February will not face charges, according to the district attorney.
Police said Kenneth Lee Bailey, 24, fled from three officers trying to arrest him for violating the curfew set as a condition of his pretrial release for an Aug. 2016 incident. Police said Bailey pulled a gun on them before he was shot and killed on Glenbrook Drive in the Club Boulevard public housing complex.

The District Attorney's Office said Tuesday that Bailey was shot twice, once in the torso and once in the leg.

A preliminary report released the week after the shooting indicated Bailey had a gun and refused to drop it when officers told him to do so. Bailey's family and friends, though, disputed the story, saying he did not have a weapon.

The DA's office said three shell casings and a handgun were recovered from the scene of the shooting. Investigators also collected $1,540 cash, a bundle of plastic baggies, a scale and one bag of green leafy substance from Bailey's pockets and found three baggies of white powder next to his body. Two of the baggies tested positive for cocaine and heroin.

"There is significant evidence to believe Kenneth Lee Bailey, Jr. possessed a gun on this occasion," the DA concluded. "There is also ample evidence that Mr. Bailey displayed a firearm and pointed the firearm at the officers."

District Attorney, Roger Echols, says for the last few months, prosecutors in his office thoroughly reviewed evidence collected by the State Bureau of Investigation.

"Every item of evidence, every report, every witness statement," he said.

The incident began after officers arrived at a home at 2512 Glenbrook Drive around 2:15 p.m. on Feb. 15 to serve an arrest warrant on Bailey.

Previous reports said four people were inside the house when Cpl. J.E. Lloyd, Officer T.M. Greathouse and Officer A.G. D'Meza knocked on the door. Bailey then ran out a side door and across the street, with the three officers in pursuit.

Greathouse, D'Meza and Lloyd were placed on paid leave pending the outcome of a State Bureau of Investigation review of the case, which is standard protocol for officer-involved shootings.

The DA's office determined that "Officers D'Meza and Greathouse fired their firearms at Kenneth Lee Bailey, Jr., struck him and killed him," but said the evidence supported the officers' stories that they were afraid of being shot.

"Based on all of the evidence, probable cause does not exist to charge Officer D'Meza, Officer Greathouse or Officer Lloyd with a criminal offense," the DA's office said.

But Bailey's parents contend the shooting wasn't justified.

"We do not believe he posed any threat to the officers when they killed him," the family said in a statement. "We do not believe he was armed when he was shot. They weren't thinking he was somebody's son when they killed him."

Investigators interviewed nearly 20 witnesses. Their statements were inconsistent. While one witness said Bailey did not have a weapon, another said they clearly saw him holding a gun. Echols said based on the evident, there was no probably cause to charge the officers.

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