Kenneth Lee Bailey Jr, 23

Durham, North Carolina
February 15, 2017

Agencies: State Bureau of Investigations SBI North Carolina | Durham Police Department North Carolina | Attorney General’s Office North Carolina

Cause of death: Shooting


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Last updated: almost 6 years ago

Overview

A man wanted on several outstanding warrants was killed Wednesday afternoon in a shooting involving three Durham police officers, authorities said.

The shooting occurred in the 2500 block of Glenbrook Drive at about 2:20 p.m. as the members of the Selective Enforcement Team were trying to serve an order for arrest, Police Chief C.J. Davis said. Durham police started using police body cameras in December, but the officers involved in Wednesday's shootings were not wearing body cameras.

Police haven't released the man's name, but a relative at the scene of the shooting identified him as 24-year-old Kenneth Lee Bailey Jr. Bailey was charged last summer with robbery with a dangerous weapon, felony conspiracy and possession of a firearm by a felon, and court records show an order for his arrest on the first two charges was issued Wednesday. Davis said the man had violated his pre-trial release conditions. The man ran from police, and during a foot chase, he pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at the officers, who then fired at him, Davis said.

Witnesses said they heard several shots fired and said a school bus was pulling into the neighborhood off East Club Boulevard at the time of the shooting.

Davis said a gun, which had been reported stolen in December, was found next to the man's body.

A tense situation developed after the shooting, as dozens of police officers flooded into the neighborhood – home to the Club Boulevard or "Bluefield" public housing complex – where angry residents gathered and starting shouting at police. Others were hugging and crying and asking for answers.

"The police need to stop killing our young, black men and anybody else," one man said. 

Davis went door to door in the neighborhood after the shooting to talk with residents