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New Bern Sun Journal
November 23,2006
Joe Miller
JACKSONVILLE The District Attorney’s Office will not file criminal charges against officers involved in a shooting that left one man dead and a Jacksonville police officer hospitalized.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee said that after meeting with the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, it was determined there were no criminal violations committed when police shot and killed New River Air Station Marine Neil Howard Manson.
Officer Shawn Marcinowsky was shot in the ankle, the release states. He was listed Wednesday in good condition at Onslow Memorial Hospital.
Officers were originally called to the residence of Manson’s estranged wife on Croatan Court just after 7 a.m. Monday.
A release from Lee states that Manson’s wife told police he was on antidepressants. Lee said Manson had apparently just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.
Members of the SWAT team entered the back door of the residence, and officers tried to negotiate with Manson.
Police were able to evacuate his estranged wife from the house and convince Manson to lay down a loaded .38 caliber revolver, the release states.
Just before 8:30 a.m., Manson opened the front door to the residence and was met by a member of the SWAT team, the release states.
Lee said officers approached Manson from behind, and an officer came from inside the house out to the porch.
A videotape shows Manson, 40, reaching into his coat pocket and displaying a .40 caliber gun in a threatening manner, at which time he was shot, the release states.
Lee said the officer who came out to the porch was apparently the one who first fired his gun.
No expended .40 caliber shell casings were located near Manson after the shooting.
Manson was taken to Onslow Memorial Hospital after the shooting and later airlifted to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, where he died several hours later.
Autopsy results, according to the release, showed that Manson was struck two times. There were two entrance and two exit wounds.
The release states that the SBI found letters written by Manson to his estranged wife, as well as his former wife, parents, son and a friend.
“(The letters stated) that he would see them on ‘the other side’ or ‘that he would be looking down from heaven’,” the release states.
Four officers will be placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an internal investigation, which could be completed next week.