OFFICER FIRES, HITS UNARMED BOY

15 Concord Police Were Looking For Drugs

CONCORD

- -- A Concord police officer shot an unarmed 15-year-old boy from
behind Tuesday as officers entered a home to search for drugs.

Police entered a home in the 300 block of Fox Street in the Logan
neighborhood to execute a drug search warrant about 5 p.m., Concord
Police Chief Robert Cansler said.

Officers went to the door, which was open, and announced, "Search
warrant." The officers then entered and said, "Everybody on the
floor," according to Cansler.

Officer Lennie Bryan Rivera entered first and immediately fired one
round, hitting Thomas Roosevelt Edwards Jr. in the right buttock, the
police chief said.

Thomas, who lives nearby on Broad Drive in southeast Concord, was
taken to NorthEast Medical Center and was treated and released Tuesday
night.

Thomas said he obeyed the officers' command to get
down.

"It was scary, real scary," Thomas said in an interview Tuesday night.
"I just wanted to know why he shot."

It's unclear why Rivera shot Thomas, Cansler said. The State Bureau of
Investigation is investigating. Rivera will be placed on
administrative duty with pay pending the investigation's outcome.

Police stopped the drug search to secure the scene after Thomas was
shot. They resumed it later Tuesday night and found a small amount of
marijuana and cocaine and paraphernalia at the home, Cansler said. No
arrests were made.

Thomas' parents, Theresa and Thomas Edwards, were outraged at the
shooting. Theresa Edwards, who works at Arrowood Mills in Mount
Pleasant, said her son and five other children ages 13 to 17 were
playing video games at the house when the police went inside.

Police told the teen-agers to get down on their hands and knees,
Theresa Edwards said her son told her. Her son followed the
instructions and then was shot from behind, she said. All of the
teen-agers were on their hands and knees, Thomas told his mother.

"I'm trying to hold it together," Theresa Edwards said in a phone
interview from the emergency room. "I'm really upset about it. It's
wrong. . . . He did what the officer told them to."

Thomas' father said police told him the shooting was an accident. He
was at his uncle's funeral at First Christian Church in Concord when a
family member arrived and told him what had happened.

"They should be more careful and look out for innocent kids," he said.
"They could have killed other kids there, too. . . . He didn't even
know what was going on. The video game was still going on."

The bullet entered near the boy's hip and went straight through his
buttock, but didn't cause serious damage, his father said.

Thomas is a ninth-grader at Concord High School, where he plays
varsity football. He goes to the Fox Street home almost every day to
play video games, his mother said. She wouldn't allow him to go there
if she thought drugs were in the home, she said.

Even if there were drugs there, police should have been more careful
when they saw children in the home, his father said. Some neighbors
were also angered.

"How can they trust the cops when they don't care if they shoot them
or not?" said Angela Thomas, a neighbor. "You (police) are the one
that's supposed to be protecting them and you're the one that's
putting them in danger."

Until the SBI completes its investigation and gives its findings to
the Cabarrus County district attorney, Cansler did not want to
elaborate on whether the shooting was an accident.

Rivera has worked at the Concord Police Department for five years. He
previously served as shift supervisor for campus police at
Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, Cansler said.

Reach Leslie Gross at 786-2185 or lgross@charlotte.com