‘Deeply troubling’: 3 North Carolina police officers resign amid probe into alleged racist texts
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA – March 8 2025 : Side view of a Patrol car used by the Charlotte – Mecklenburg Police department in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA (Onfokus/Getty Images)
Three police officers have resigned amid an investigation into alleged racist texts shared among a group of six officers at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) in North Carolina, the police chief announced during a press conference on Thursday.
“The allegations against them are serious,” CMPD Police Chief Estella Patterson said during a press conference on Thursday afternoon. “They’re deeply troubling. And frankly, I’m disappointed that we’re even having to talk about this today.”
Three additional officers are also embroiled in this controversy, and their actions are also being investigated, according to police. Patterson said on Thursday that she supports terminating the remaining three officers who remain on the force.
According to Patterson, the city of Charlotte’s Civil Service Board is reviewing evidence in this case and has the sole authority to determine whether sworn members of the department should be terminated.
The identity of the six officers involved in this case has not been released. Asked about the officers’ identities and the content of the text messages, the CMPD spokesperson did not provide further comment.
According to ABC affiliate in Charlotte, WSOC, the messages included the use of the n-word and were found during an investigation into Flock camera misuse by a former CMPD officer.
Patterson said that since launching the investigation, her department has worked to determine whether there were “external complaints” against the officers being investigated and has partnered with federal agencies to determine whether civil rights violations have occurred.
“We immediately conducted audits of their body-worn footage, we reviewed their traffic stops, their traffic stop data, we looked at their arrest records, and we looked to see if any of those officers had external complaints,” Patterson said on Thursday. “As of this point, we have not found any evidence of this, but I have asked our federal partners to look at the possibility of civil rights violations.”
Patterson said that her department will pursue revoking the North Carolina law enforcement certificates of the officers who resigned so that they cannot serve as law enforcement officers in the state of North Carolina.
“And I hope that they will not be an officer anywhere in this country,” she added.
Patterson said that she is “concerned whether this type of behavior is systemic” and said that her department is taking steps to ensure “proper conduct.” She also said that the state of North Carolina requires officers to participate in “ethics training.”
“My message to the community is that I have said from day one and coming in this position that we will hold employees accountable that are not doing their jobs properly, that operate outside the law, procedures, policies, or anything that’s ethical or unethical within the organization,” Patterson said.
“While I have focused on the negative actions of a few, and we will hold any other employee to proper conduct, I want to underscore the point that the overwhelming majority of our employees do exceptional work every single day,” she added. “They come to work to serve this community, and they demonstrate that in their actions. They do their work with respect, with compassion, and professionalism.”
A spokesperson for CMPD told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday that the department “will not tolerate any behavior that contradicts our core values or jeopardizes the trust we have built with the community we serve.”
Rev. Corine Mack, who leads the Charlotte-Mecklenburg chapter of the NAACP, told ABC News on Tuesday that she was “not surprised” but was “disturbed” by the alleged conduct that is being investigated in this case. “I’m hoping that every one of the officers involved gets decertified, so they cannot go into another department and do further harm to people of color, specifically Black people,” she said.
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse for his sentencing hearing on July 23, 2025 in Boise, Idaho. (Photo by Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images)
(BOISE, Idaho) — Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty last year to the University of Idaho murders, is trying to challenge his conviction, according to new court documents.
Kohberger filed a petition on Monday for post-conviction relief with the Ada County District Court. He is currently representing himself, according to the docket.
The family of victim Kaylee Goncalves said in a statement Monday that Kohberger admitted his guilt in his plea and “chose not to leave his fate — or the facts of the case — to a jury.”
“We would have preferred a death-penalty trial; we believe fully in the evidence,” the family said. “Instead, [Kohberger] received exactly what he asked for: a deal that spared his life. Know this — he hates that life. He wants another chance to roll the dice.”
If Kohberger is granted a hearing, the family said that day in court will offer him a “welcome break from solitary confinement: a ride, perhaps different food, photos taken, and the spotlight once again fixed on him and his supposed ‘innocence.'”
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador said in a statement Monday, “My heart goes out to the families of Madison, Kaylee, Xana, and Ethan, who have already endured unimaginable loss and now must face today’s deeply painful news. My office stands ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure justice is fully carried out.”
Kohberger was arrested for the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students — roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin — at the girls’ off-campus house in 2022.
DNA from a knife sheath left at the crime scene was found to be a “statistical match” to Kohberger, authorities said. Kohberger’s phone was also near the victims’ house at least 12 times before the murders, court documents said, with all of those times, except for one, late at night or early in the morning.
In July 2025, weeks before his trial was set to start, Kohberger pleaded guilty to all counts. As part of the plea deal, the death penalty was taken off the table.
Kohberger was given four consecutive life sentences for four first-degree murder counts as well as 10 years for the burglary count. Kohberger — a criminology student at Washington State University at the time of the murders — didn’t address the court at sentencing.
Authorities said last year that the motive remained unknown and they didn’t know which victim was the specific target.
A Tennessee judge granted a motion to preserve relevant evidence in the botched execution of Christa Pike.
The lone woman on Tennessee’s death row survived being administered two lethal doses of pentobarbital and remains hospitalized following the failed Sept. 30 execution in Nashville, her attorneys said.
Pike was sentenced to death after being convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Her attempted execution by lethal injection came after a series of last-minute legal challenges.
Pike’s attorneys had filed an emergency motion in Davidson County Chancery Court last week seeking an order requiring the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) to protect and preserve “any and all evidence related” related to the execution attempt, which they allege was “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“In light of the manifest violation of Ms. Pike’s constitutional rights, the actionable nature of that violation, and the reasonable foreseeability of litigation, the Defendants have an affirmative duty to preserve all relevant physical, written, and electronic evidence,” the filing stated.
Following arguments from Pike’s attorney and the state, Chancellor I’Ashea Myles granted the motion.
“This case is unique, to say the least,” she said. “In light of the evolving situation, the court will pen and grant its own order, granting the motion to preserve relevant evidence.”
The evidence ordered preserved and maintained includes all photographs, video recordings, audio recordings and surveillance footage of the execution; all drugs, syringes, IV lines and tubing that are in the state’s possession; and all handwritten notes and logs, checklists, timelines, incident report and witness accounts.
She also included all communications regarding the execution and “anything concerning the deviation” from protocol and “anything concerning any complications, delays, equipment issues, anything in regards to the ability to access veins — just the administration of this particular execution. It needs to all be maintained.”
Wednesday’s hearing came a day after Pike’s attorneys said she regained consciousness after the failed execution left her critically injured and temporarily on a ventilator. During the hearing, one of Pike’s attorneys, Luke Ihnen with the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, told the court that she is “speaking limitedly.”
During arguments on preserving evidence from the botched execution, Ihnen told the court, “We don’t know what they have because they won’t tell us, and so the preservation order seeks the broadest possible preservation of evidence.”
“Everything they have in their possession should be preserved,” he said.
“Before yesterday, we didn’t know if Miss Pike was ever going to regain consciousness or speak. She has, and so we’ve come to this court,” Ihnen said. “We didn’t have a reason to visit our client until yesterday, and so you know, it’s evolving for all of us, and TDOC has continued to put up these barriers to access.”
Assistant Attorney General for the State of Tennessee Will Ayers told the court that the state is working with Pike’s counsel to ensure that she is able to “get the evidence that they believe they’re entitled to” and that TDOC has already been instructed to preserve evidence that is covered under a federal case involving another Tennessee death row inmate.
“TDOC has advised us that evidence, physical evidence, was collected from the execution chamber on the night of September 30th, and has been logged into a preservation room,” Ayers told the court. “Among the things collected are logbooks, observation logs, medical waste and products, EKG readouts.”
Ayers said there are some items that may not be in TDOC’s possession, such as portions of the IV lines.
“There may be portions of those IV lines that could have been still attached to Miss Pike when she was transported to the hospital,” he said.
In issuing her order, Myles said she will not rely on the federal case cited by the state.
“To any extent that any information or any evidence has already been discarded, deleted, destroyed or no longer exists, I want TDOC to take an affirmative step to try to claw back that information and put in policies and procedures while this litigation is pending to ensure that no information is discarded and/or destroyed,” she said.
According to the motion filed by Pike’s attorneys, Pike “could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly” while being administered two lethal doses of pentobarbital, at one point stating that her arm “feels like it’s about to burst open.” At least seven needles were used to gain IV access, with one “bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed,” the motion stated.
The motion described pentobarbital, a sedating medication, as being “caustic and highly alkaline” and that it “burns upon contact.” Both of Pike’s arms were “swollen, burned, and blistered” when she arrived at a Nashville-area hospital, the motion stated.
Pike had raised concerns about a lethal injection in a complaint filed months prior to her scheduled execution, arguing that her “thrombocytosis, post-traumatic stress disorder and small veins ‘make it sure or very likely that there is a substantial risk that she will experience unnecessary and superadded pain and suffering, terror, and disgrace,'” the motion stated.
Ihnen said during Wednesday’s hearing that “based on what we know about Miss Pike’s current condition, these allegations that were made in the complaint certainly appear to be at least related to the botched execution.”
Asked directly by Chancellor Myles at one point if he can answer whether Pike’s execution will be rescheduled, Ayers said he is not in a position to answer that.
In an update Tuesday, Pike’s attorneys said she was conscious and speaking, alling her recovery “medically unprecedented.”
“Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery,” her attorneys — Ihnen, as well as Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason from the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender and Stephen Ferrell from the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee — said in a statement.
TDOC confirmed Tuesday that Pike remains hospitalized but said it could not provide details of her medical condition due to federal privacy laws.
In the wake of the botched execution, TDOC said that it “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.”
“The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out [that] evening,” the statement continued.
Pike’s attorneys said Tuesday they continue to ask Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
She is the first person reported to have survived lethal injection after being given medications, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, whose executive director referred to the failed attempt as “the worst we’ve ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era.”
In the wake of the botched execution, Gov. Lee ordered a temporary halt to scheduled executions in the state and TDOC Commissioner Frank Strada resigned.
The governor’s office said in a statement that it has also appointed former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to conduct an independent review of TDOC’s execution attempt that “will seek to determine whether the protocol was followed and consider whether additional recommendations are necessary to ensure the State’s protocol continues to be lawful and effective.”
“The State previously retained Stanton in 2022 to conduct an independent review of Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol. His work prompted the State and Attorney General’s Office to substantially rewrite the protocol before executions resumed,” the statement further said.
The botched execution comes after Tennessee’s planned execution of Tony Carruthers in May had to be halted after authorities were unable to find a suitable vein to place an IV to administer the injection after trying for over an hour, his attorneys said at the time. Gov. Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve.
Jimmie Steverson, 23, is wanted for the death of Chris Fisher, a Warm Springs Police Department officer, who was killed late Tuesday night. (Georgia Bureau of investigation)
(NEW YORK) — A 23-year-old man wanted in the fatal shooting of a Georgia police officer has been found after a manhunt ensued.
Jimmie Steverson, 23, is believed to have shot Chris Fisher, a Warm Springs Police Department officer, who was killed just before midnight, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
On Tuesday night, Fisher concluded an unrelated traffic stop while on duty and in his patrol car in the parking lot of Meriwether Country Inn, according to GBI.
While he was stopped a black 2026 Chevrolet Silverado stopped beside Fisher’s patrol car, according to GBI.
“The driver, later identified as Jimmy Lee Steverson, age 23, of Warm Springs, GA, then fired multiple shots into Officer Fisher’s patrol vehicle, hitting Officer Fisher. Steverson then fled the parking lot,” according to GBI.
Fisher was pronounced dead at the scene and his body will be taken for an autopsy, according to GBI.
On Wednesday at around 11:30 a.m., the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office initiated a traffic stop on a car in Anderson, South Carolina and found Steverson, who was a passenger in the car, according to GBI.
“When law enforcement made contact with the car, they discovered Steverson injured from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Steverson was transported to a local hospital,” GBI said in a statement.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he is “deeply saddened” by the news of Fisher’s killing.
“This is a tragic reminder of the dangers law enforcement face on a daily basis in service to their communities, and I ask that all Georgians lift up Fisher’s family and his fellow officers in prayer,” Kemp said in a post on X.
This investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the GBI Midland Regional Investigative Office at 706-565-7888.
