Family members identified the man killed as 26-year-old Kenmara Davis, who was shot on Post Avenue off Ramsey Street. Police said the officer who shot him is Michael Yount, who earlier this month was cleared of wrongdoing after shooting a burglary suspect in June.
Yount responded to a report of shots fired around 9:12 p.m. Thursday, police said. The officer encountered a man “stumbling around in the middle of the roadway” when he arrived in the neighborhood near Reid Ross Classical School.
A police statement said Davis shot at Yount, who responded with gunfire in self-defense.
“In this situation, the individual and officer were involved in a shootout,” police Chief Tom Bergamine said Friday. He declined to say more until an investigation is complete. Yount was not injured.
Melvin Gary, who lives next door to Davis’ house, questions whether Davis ever fired at Yount. Gary, 41, said he had spoken to Davis earlier in the evening, when Davis was looking for his pit bull named Eva.
Gary said he heard the first two shots, which prompted someone to call police. But he doesn’t know where the shots came from. He said they didn’t appear to be part of an altercation outside.
When Yount arrived about 10 minutes later, Gary said, he heard six to eight shots fired in rapid succession. He went outside to find Yount holding a gun and flashlight over Davis’ body in the middle of the road and in front of Gary’s house.
“He said, ‘Go back inside, the suspect is armed,’” Gary said. “I went in and came out the other door, and then I said, ‘I’m not going anywhere until I see a weapon.’”
Gary said Yount handcuffed Davis, who was lying motionless and face down with blood coming from his back. Gary said a large handgun was found about 20 feet from Davis’ body.
The State Bureau of Investigation, along with detectives from the Major Crimes Division of the Fayetteville Police Department, is investigating the shooting.
Bergamine declined to comment on specifics of the case because the SBI is leading the probe, which is standard in officer-involved shootings.
“The folks working hard are getting to all the facts, not the hearsay, and they’re going to put the case together,” Bergamine said. “It’s really easy for folks to point fingers and put stuff out there, but we’re in the business of addressing the facts as they occur. I feel that the officer was very fortunate in this case because he could have very well been shot.”
Yount was cleared early this month in the June shooting. The officer shot a 20-year-old burglary suspect in the leg when the suspect and two others attacked Yount and his police dog behind Eutaw Village shopping center, investigators said. The use of deadly force was investigated by the SBI, and Cumberland County District Attorney Ed Grannis said Yount’s actions were “warranted and necessary in his line of duty.”
Home searchEarly Friday, police searched Davis’ home at 121 Post Ave., according to his sister, Larana Davis. The reasons for the search were not known publicly, but police confiscated a gun and some marijuana, the sister said. Police obtained a search warrant.
Davis and other family members said Kenmara Davis had not been stumbling when they last saw him less than two hours earlier. He had been drinking some to celebrate Thanksgiving but was not intoxicated, they said. Just before he went looking for his dog, he had been playing the Madden 2009 video game on PlayStation 3 with friends.
Davis grew up in Fayetteville and attended Reid Ross Classical School and E.E. Smith High School, where he was a point guard on the basketball team.
His grandmother, Mildred Davis, said he loved to goof around. He would throw pennies in his yard because he knew she would notice them and pick them up, she said after finding one in the grass.
Kenmara Davis had been in trouble with the law before. He served 10 months in prison three years ago for felony illegal weapons possession and possession of a Schedule 6 drug, such as marijuana or hashish, according to the state Department of Correction.
Mildred Davis said her grandson was turning his life around. He turned 26 earlier this month and was preparing to graduate from Fayetteville State University in December, she said.
She said he planned to go into theater.
Gary, the neighbor, described Kenmara Davis as a clean-cut college man and snazzy dresser.
City Councilman Charles Evans stopped by Davis’ small white house Friday evening to speak with family members. White flowers with a white ribbon had been placed by the front door.
Evans said there are many questions in this case that need answers so people in his district aren’t afraid of police.
“We have a chief of police we trust with taking care of all of our citizens in a very professional manner,” Evans said. “I hope and pray our chief is doing just that with each and every citizen.”
Until the investigation is complete, Yount will be on administrative duty and will not have a police-issued firearm.
Bergamine said the investigation could be lengthy. The shooting involving Yount in June took more than four months to investigate
What do you think? Trigger happy or doing the right thing? When you hear people in the area talk about it he was a good young man, out looking for his dog and this happened. Then you read on here about his criminal background and they searched his house and find drugs and a gun. Why would he shoot at the officer that was asking him a question?
