A man died Friday after Kannapolis police officers shot him during an attempted carjacking at the intersection of South Main Street and Bethpage Road, according to police. No officers were injured in the shooting, per police.
Gunfire Reported Minutes Before Officers Encountered Suspect
The chain of events began with a 911 call reporting that a man was shooting a gun on South Main Street near Bell Street, according to the Queen City News report on the developing story. Kannapolis officers responding to that call soon spotted a suspect holding a gun and attempting to carjack a vehicle at South Main and Bethpage, per police. The dispatch and the confrontation happened in close succession, with the emergency call coming in at roughly the same time officers intercepted the armed suspect down South Main Street, according to the City of Kannapolis.
Officers opened fire on the suspect, who was then taken to Atrium Health Cabarrus, where he later died, police say. South Main Street was closed between Dale Earnhardt Boulevard and Rankin Street while investigators worked the scene, according to the same Queen City News report. Atrium Health Cabarrus is a 457-bed regional hospital in Concord operating a Level III trauma center and serving as Cabarrus County's principal inpatient medical facility, per the American Hospital Directory.
State Bureau of Investigation Takes Over Probe
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is now investigating the officer-involved shooting, police say, while the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave pending an internal review — standard procedure for this kind of incident. The SBI routinely conducts independent criminal investigations into officer-involved shootings at the request of local departments or district attorneys, submitting its findings directly to the local prosecutor to determine whether criminal charges are warranted, according to the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys. That process mirrors how the Cabarrus County District Attorney previously cleared an officer of wrongdoing following a 2022 fatal shooting during an attempted vehicle theft at a Concord car dealership, per WSOC-TV's reporting on that case.
North Carolina law sets a strict standard for when officers may use deadly force. Under N.C.G.S. § 15A-401(d)(2), officers are authorized to use deadly force only when reasonably necessary to defend themselves or others from imminent deadly force, or to apprehend a suspect who presents an imminent threat of death or serious injury, according to the UNC School of Government. A related statute enacted in 2021, N.C.G.S. § 15A-401(d1), also requires officers to intervene if they witness another officer using excessive force and to report any unauthorized force to supervisors, the same UNC School of Government analysis notes.
Busy Corridor, Department in Transition
South Main Street and Bethpage Road sit along a primary municipal traffic corridor connecting central Kannapolis to key Cabarrus County thoroughfares, according to the City of Kannapolis, which has also been advancing pedestrian safety and sidewalk projects set to begin this year along the route. The shooting adds to a string of recent Kannapolis incidents Hoodline has covered fatal gunfire cases in the city this year, including an April shooting that led to an arrest and an earlier downtown scare where police found no evidence shots had actually been fired.
Friday's shooting is not the department's first fatal officer-involved incident in recent years. In January 2025, Kannapolis officers were involved in a fatal shooting during a traffic stop on North Cannon Boulevard after a suspect pointed a handgun at an officer during a warrant arrest; that suspect died two days later, according to WSOC-TV. The department, which comprises 131 officers and staff, earned its ninth consecutive national accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies this past April, a distinction held by roughly six percent of U.S. law enforcement agencies, per the City of Kannapolis. The shooting also comes as the department prepares for a leadership change: Chief Terry Spry, who joined the force in 1994 and became chief in 2020, announced in July that he will retire on September 29.
Key details remain unresolved, including the identity of the man who died, how many officers fired their weapons, and whether body-camera footage from the encounter will be released. The SBI's investigation, once complete, will be forwarded to the Cabarrus County District Attorney to determine whether any charges are warranted.
