Police-shooting suspect had assault convictions:
The suspect in the shooting deaths of Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers Jeffrey Melton and Sean Clark has a violent past criminal record. Demeatrius Antonio Montgomery has had past arrests for assaults against women and other police officers.
Montgomery was sentenced to 120 days in the Mecklenburg County jail for a 2004 assault on a female. He was accused of striking a woman twice on the left side of her face.
Montgomery was sentenced in 2004 to 45 days in jail for assault on a government official. The assault occurred after a police officer spotted Montgomery speeding out of an apartment complex and pulled him over.
In an affidavit, the police officer said Montgomery started yelling out the window as he was pulled over and asked why the officer was harassing him.
When the police officer asked for his driver’s license, Montgomery began yelling, got out of the car and rushed toward the officer, according to the affidavit. The officer wrote that Montgomery “came face to face” with him and bumped him in the chest.
The officer told Montgomery to put his hands on the hood of the patrol car.
He then recalled Montgomery’s words: “You are a small man and I am going to hurt you.”
“I felt that he would carry out this threat.”
Backup officers were called to the scene. The officer said Montgomery continued to be combative and had to be physically restrained.
Montgomery pleaded guilty to the assault charge. The communicating threats and resisting arrest charges were dropped.
Last year, Montgomery was convicted of having an open container of beer on a public street and resisting arrest. In an affidavit, the arresting officer wrote that he pulled up beside Montgomery after spotting him drinking a bottle of beer while walking. The officer said he told Montgomery that he could not have an open container in public and directed him to pour the rest of the beer out.
Montgomery, the police officer said, drank the rest of the beer.
The officer wrote that when he informed Montgomery he was under arrest, the suspect fled and refused to stop.
The officer caught up to him a block away. Montgomery was charged with having an open container and resisting an officer. Montgomery pleaded guilty to both charges and was sentenced to three days in jail.
So seeing this information going from assault to killing two police officers is not that much of a stretch.
