Five law enforcement officers shot Rodney Wilson in a yard in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Aug. 21. On Tuesday, District Attorney Jason Smith announced that none of them will face criminal charges.
Wilson, 35, survived. His mother had called 911 because he was behaving erratically, according to his father, Rodney Dixon, and Wilmington police. Three Wilmington police officers and two New Hanover County sheriff’s deputies fired at him at the corner of 7th and Red Cross streets. Smith’s office, acting on a review by the State Bureau of Investigation, said Wilson fired first and the officers returned fire.
Dixon disputes that account. He acknowledges his son had a gun but questions whether he fired it. “They started running at him, aggressive, no de-escalation at all,” he said. “He was having a crisis. They came to kill.”
Wilson was indicted Oct. 12 on charges that include four counts of assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm. He has not been convicted. His bond is $1,075,000, and an administrative hearing is set for Nov. 9. Dixon says his son has a history of mental health problems and was living with his grandmother. “My son was the type that he would just want to be heard,” he said.
Dixon said the decision did not surprise him. “I wasn’t surprised. I was hurt, but never surprised.” He said no local official has spoken with him about the shooting.
Black leaders in the county have pressed the same two demands since September: release the video, and explain why no crisis intervention team was sent to a call about a mental health crisis. The New Hanover County Black Leadership Caucus and Speak Your Peace North Carolina made those demands at a Sept. 16 news conference. Wilmington police answered then that body camera footage “is not able to be released to the public under North Carolina law without approval through the proper channels, including a Superior Court Judge.” Under that law the public cannot see what the officers did, and the decision not to charge them has now been made without it.
At a rally Tuesday on Red Cross Street, Sonya Patrick, the Southeastern Region chair of the National Black Leadership Caucus, said: “We are very disappointed as to the response.” She asked whether excessive force against Black and brown communities, with officers walking away, is what America has become. Advocates called for de-escalation training and for the video to be made public.
Elizabeth Sierra, whose son Edilberto Espinoza-Sierra died in a March shooting by officers, also spoke. “My son wasn’t a delinquent, or he wasn’t a criminal,” she said.
The officers had been on paid administrative leave while the SBI investigated. Wilson is still recovering and needs extensive rehabilitation. His next court date is Nov. 9.
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