The Editorial Board of The Masses received the following People’s Investigation from Munguwakike Freedom and People’s Defense Charlotte.

According to initial interviews and findings of a people’s investigation conducted on the scene that was initiated to be able to provide a truthful narrative of the people that witnessed this brutal murder

On September 18 at around 2:00pm, Curtis Massey, affectionately known as Curt-T stood at the bus stop in front of the Shell gas station on Lasalle Street chatting with a long-time friend and another community member.

“Let me hold a quarter to get something to drink”, were some of the last words he would utter to his friend.

He joked and at first refused to give Mr. Massey the quarter but he reached down in his pocket to retrieve the change for his friend. With the quarters in hand, Mr. Massey turned around to walk towards the gas station. Two cops were standing in the parking lot and called out to Mr. Massey. Having only received change from his friend, Mr. Massey had no reason to believe the police were calling out to him. He continued walking towards the store. The police called out again for him to stop walking. When Mr. Massey realized the cops were coming towards him, he began to run.

Mr. Massey ran towards Newland Road and stumbled in the grass. A gun fell from his pocket as he hit the ground. He pulled himself up to continue running, never reaching back or towards the gun, and never pointing the weapon at anyone – eyewitnesses then say a young Black/New Afrikan policeman yelled gun – and simultaneously fired three to five rounds striking Mr. Massey in the back.

Although CMPD reported attempts to resuscitate Mr. Massey at the scene, onlookers told a different story. According to several of these accounts, police removed Mr. Massey’s clothes as he lay in the road. Medics did not arrive until about 15 to 20 minutes later. His body laid in the street until he was eventually transported to a hospital not known to address traumatic injuries. We believe this purposeful disruption of the crime scene destroys evidence as per eyewitnesses it was clear he was already deceased.

The intersection of Lasalle St. and Newland Rd. receives substantial foot traffic throughout the day. Despite numerous eyewitnesses corroborating the same above account, in their press conference, CMPD falsely reported that Mr. Massey “appeared to be engaged in a criminal transaction” and had “produced a firearm” as he ran away.

None of the business owners or community members who witnessed the killing agreed with CMPD’s statement of how the shooting occurred. According to one business owner in the vicinity, CMPD conducted several interviews with patrons and onlookers in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, though none of their statements resurfaced in CMPD’s reporting to media outlets.

Firearms are not illegal in the State of North Carolina. Previously incarcerated folks with a felony must petition to have their right to bear arms reinstated. In North Carolina, “unlawful” firearm possession comes with a penalty of 39 months to 59 months in prison. Public execution is not the penalty for gun possession.

It is no coincidence that Curtis Massey was murdered in Lincoln Heights, one of the last predominantly Black/New Afrikan communities still resisting gentrification efforts. It must be understood that gentrification is ethnic cleansing. This is why they’ve criminalized poverty and are packing the jails full of the most vulnerable members of our community. We will have to fight for it. If we dare to struggle, we dare to win. If we don’t struggle, we don’t deserve to win. We demand dignified existence, respect, and peace.

Mr. Massey was a husband, a son, a cousin, a nephew, and a father to three boys. He now joins the long and growing list of undignified and unjust state-sanctioned deaths at the hands of police. The CMPD cop’s ability to summarily murder Mr. Massey needed no trial, because it was the dangerous concoction of poverty and national minority status that constituted the crime. By labeling Mr. Massey, a violent drug dealer, CMPD hoped to draw public support and apathy for this public execution.

This police tactic is not new nor is it particular to CMPD. When CMPD executed Keith Lamont Scott, they accused him of being violent. In the 10 years since, 38 more people have been murdered by CMPD. The budget allocated to CMPD has increased by $131 million dollars. Their goal of repression, surveillance and control has only expanded further with over 260 Flock cameras being installed in Charlotte. Ferguson Missouri’s police department bolstered “he was violent” accusations against Michael Brown. Police similarly labeled Sonya Massey, Eric Garner and countless other Black/New Afrikan citizens dangerous in order to justify their impulsive and deadly use of force. And across these cases, the slow release of evidence from the actual events proved that the victims posed no threat to police and were oftentimes compliant.

The history of blatant police cover-ups suggests not only a corrupt police culture, but that police know well the social touch points that will generate public support for this level of corruption so that the public comes to accept it as a necessary part of policing. If we are truthful about the events surrounding Mr. Massey’s traumatic public murder in broad daylight, we must concede that the police draw their confidence from state-sanctioned structures of power that shield them from accountability and sustain a broader system of capitalist-imperialist oppression.

“Anyone who can pass the civil service examination today can kill me tomorrow. Anyone who passed the civil service examination yesterday can kill me today with complete immunity.” -George Jackson, Blood in My Eye

Local organizers denounce the lack of transparency by police to the family and community of Curtis Massey with their refusal to acknowledge him as a victim due to aggressive police tactics that lead to police saturation and fatal encounters by police in our communities too often. The only way to fight back is to organize ourselves against the state in all its forms. We must talk to our neighbors about the issues affecting us and form neighborhood defense units to counteract the state’s presence on our streets.

Recognize who our real enemies are, the landlords, corporate developers who seek to evict us and gentrify our homes, and CMPD & Mecklenburg County sheriffs that are trained to shoot first and coverup cover up later. Those complicit are lackey opportunist shills who promote their agenda in our communities and keep telling us to vote and be peaceful. We must connect and build with our real allies; tenants, immigrants, exploited workers, people of oppressed nationalities and genders. We far outnumber them, that is why they’re so afraid and have to rely so heavily on surveillance and violence to safeguard their precarious position as an a leeching, occupying force in our city. We will never forget Curtis. We will never forgive.

Community members can join family, friends and local organizations rallying to end policing of Black/New Afrikan communities and state-sanctioned violence at several upcoming protests, and community organizing efforts in the next upcoming weeks.

We demand:

The immediate release of all unedited footage (audio and video), nearby surveillance, dispatch recordings, and other recorded evidence.
The release of full autopsy findings.
The preservation of all evidence.
A public-facing accountability process that names the officers involved and holds them responsible.
A thorough and transparent investigation — tell the truth!
Regular communication with Curtis’s family, a designated point of contact, timely access to all records, and respectful treatment throughout the investigation.

[Image Source: Charlotte community demands answers a month after the murder of Curtis Massey by CMPD]