The grieving sister of a North Carolina man who was fatally shot by sheriff's deputies on Sunday claims that her brother was "murdered," and that deputies should have gotten a search warrant before entering the man's Spring Lake trailer home, the Huffington Post reports.
John Livingston, his sister insists, was "an innocent man" and officers "didn't have to shoot," 21-year-old Brittany Livingston told the HuffPo.
According to the report, two Harnett county Sheriff's deputies arrived at Livingston's Spring Lake trailer home at a little before 4 a.m. on Sunday looking into an assault investigation. They were reportedly looking for an individual who was no longer there. When deputies asked Livingston if they could look inside the trailer for the man, he told them to go get a search warrant, before closing the door on them.
"The cop kicked in the door, got on top of him, started slinging him around, beating him,” Livingston's roommate Clayton Carroll told WNCN.
According to Carroll, deputies sprayed mace on Livinston and then used a Taser. Witnesses insist that Livingston was not fighting back and was only trying to get the Taser out of the deputy's hands. The scuffle was then pushed outside of the home.
“[Livingston] barely had the Taser in his hand but he had it where it was constantly going off and the officer I guess that spoke to him rolled over there, says 'he got the Taser' and shot him in this position,” Carroll told the news station, lying on the ground next to blood stains on the ground, demonstrating his friend's death.
Carroll said that Livingston was shot six times, while another roommate, Bristol Edge, said she saw four gunshot wounds, according to HuffPo.
"There was no reason for this to happen," Edge told WNCN, in tears. "They could've subdued John or called backup."
Sheriff's Deputy Nicholas Kehagias, and the other unidentified deputy who was involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation. The North Carolina Special Bureau of Investigation was also asked ot help with the investigation.
Livingston leaves behind three children. Friends called him a kind man, who was talented in carpentry.
Read more at the Huffington Post and WNCN.