North Charlotte Today

Approximately a month has passed since that fateful day when law enforcement officers shot and killed a man in Union County during a traffic stop, and the victim's family is demanding accountability.

"They attacked a man, they surrounded a man—they shot a man who was unarmed, no drugs who was in the car with his kids and family," Ne Ne Blakeney, a relative of victim Malcolm Staton, told WCNC on Thursday. "He's no longer here—not only that—they shot him in the back of the head twice." 

Blakeney asserts that deputies had no justifiable reason to shoot Staton and noted that the incident will take a lasting toll on his children.

"Malcolm was a father," she said while community members demonstrated Wednesday as they search for answers. "He was a really good father. And he mattered, you know. He mattered."

Union County has provided few details beyond the basics, the WCNC report said. Staton was parked in the Sunny Food Mart parking lot in Monroe when deputies closed in, Union County Sheriff's Office (UCSO) officials said in earlier accounts of the mid-March shooting. Deputies said in their reports that Staton used his car to hit three patrol cars while trying to flee the scene. That's when the sheriff's office said a deputy opened fire. 

Since it was an officer-involved shooting, the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI) is in charge of the inquiry. 

Because the investigation is ongoing, nothing more could be talked about, an NCSBI spokesperson said in the WCNC report.

"The investigation into this incident is still with the NCSBI at this point," the UCSO said in a statement Wednesday, quoted in the WCSC report. "The UCSO will continue to cooperate with the SBI as they collect all the pertinent facts and details during their external, unbiased investigation."

Blakeney hasn't said whether she'll pursue legal action, depending on the outcome of the NCSBI inquiry. 

"I would like for them to acknowledge that this is not OK," she said. "That this was unjust."