When a white Shelby Police Department K-9 Officer Tim Brackeen was shot and killed in 2016; allegedly by Irving Lucien Fenner, Jr., a young black man, I was like most everybody else in Cleveland County, North Carolina and the USA. I believed the narrative that was told at that time. Told by the Shelby Star, TV News from all around and the talk of the town. I attended the memorial service at the Shelby High School Baseball field and listened to all the speakers-including then Governor Pat McCrory. Like most everybody else, I expected a cut and dry Capital Murder-Death Penalty Trial in short order with a Guilty verdict and a Death Penalty sentence.
But time was marching on. And on and on and on and on!! Around three years later in the fall of 2019, three years after the alleged murder, the escape, the capture in Rhode Island, the extradition back to NC and the arrest of four others for helping Fenner escape Cleveland County and North Carolina, I began to smell a rat. I changed my mind as new facts; new conclusion took hold. And the truth of the matter began sinking in. The whole “narrative” was false. A cover-up.
Three years and no trial. When any “good” District Attorney who got a conviction and a death sentence on a cop-killer would be running for the NC Attorney General Office. Maybe even the governor’s office by now-running on a Law and Order platform. Something here just seemed to be amiss. Something was on the wrong track for sure. Especially when a source, indirectly, mentioned the women that were involved with the Fenner escape were still in jail because the DA’s Office was trying to force a “flip” where they would testify against Fenner in exchange for a plea bargain. I immediately realized that old time DA trick of keeping people in jail for long periods of time so they confess to something just to finally get out of jail.
So, I got to figuring and asking around a bit. I also pulled up some old press reports about the incident at that time and put them all together. I quickly saw that the DA’s Office had some major holes in their case. MAJOR holes in their case.
So, In the Fall of 2019 I began a series of articles demanding the DA bring this Murder 1 case to trial so the truth of the matter would finally come out. Then, messages were sent my way with information that, when compared to the public narrative, caused me to discover more and more holes in the DA’s case. Of course, I pushed harder and harder for justice to be done, whatever that justice was, and for the trial to begin. The more I pushed for a fair trial, the more information I received.
As all this was developing, my series of articles ware also developing and more and more information was coming my way.
But, as the 2019 City of Shelby Elections were coming fast, I began to write political articles about the 2019 elections. Then the DA called for a trial that quickly ended up with a plea bargain and the 2020 Elections Early Primary got started in late 2019, I shifted my focus a bit toward that, while the remaining story about cop-killing situation slowed down for more timely articles. Like the mistreatment of Mr. Willie Green in his attempts to fairly do business with the City of Shelby and the many valid lawsuits that have arose from that.
Now, the seemingly valid cries of racism related to the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, the ensuing protests, violence, looting and arson that have spread around the world as well as the killing of a black man in Atlanta by a white Policeman, Protests in Shelby, divisive attempts underway to remove the Memorial to Confederate Soldiers from the Court Square in Shelby as well as what appears to be an implied blackmail by local “black” leadership to remove the statue on the Court Square or Shelby will burn. And violence may erupt here as well.
So, considering that much of the situation of George Floyd, et al, has many similarities with the racially divisive situation of the SPD Officer Tim Brackeen killing-but in reverse. A black man is accused of killing a white cop. Obviously, the rest of the local Shelby and Cleveland County story needs to be told.
Therefore, I will begin to reprint my previous articles, about one per day, until I get to the actual Shoot-out between SPD Officer Tim Brackeen and Irving Fenner. Then the racial implications of the NO-Trial situation and how that relates to current events in Shelby and Cleveland County.
Stay tuned folks. You are about to be shocked as the truth of this matter will be coming out. One article at a time and in rapid succession.
