A lawsuit has been filed in federal court against Alamance County sheriff Terry Johnson and 10 unnamed sheriff’s deputies, seeking an unspecified amount of compensation for the May 2023 fatal shooting of a Burlington man, Warren Kent Davis, who was reportedly shot after lunging at deputies with a knife.
Davis, then 43, white, male, died from multiple gunshot wounds at 2411 Carolina Road in Burlington, according to his death certificate that was filed in May 2023 in the Alamance County Register of Deeds’ office. His death certificate listed his home address as 1755 Shamrock Drive, Bur-lington; the location of his death as his ex-girlfriend’s home on Carolina Road; and the date and time of his death as 11:32 a.m. on May 8, 2023.
The sheriff’s office later reported that deputies had gone to the residence on Carolina Road after receiving a 911 call that Davis was outside the home, in violation of a protective order that his girlfriend or ex-girlfriend (and the home’s occupant) had taken out against him, based on a petition filed in superior court in early 2024 to obtain copies of body-worn camera footage captured during the encounter.
After arriving at the scene, deputies located Davis on the woman’s property and armed with a knife, according to a brief that Alamance County attorney Rik Stevens filed in the spring of 2024, which supported the release of the recordings.
Now, Davis’ mother, Kathy Fujiwara, claims in a suit she has filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina that deputies initially fired a “flash-bang” round (a nonlethal round that produces a flash of light and loud noise) before opening fire on her son with “multiple rounds from an assortment of weapons, including AR style assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns.”
In her suit, Fujiwara alleges that Johnson, who was also on the scene, knew Davis – calling him by his name, “Kent” – and that he and his deputies knew Davis wasn’t armed. She also contends that the body-worn camera footage never showed her son armed with a knife or lunging at the deputies prior to being fatally shot.
Davis had suffered from substance abuse and mental health issues and lived with his girlfriend, Jackie Pleasant – who had obtained a domestic violence protective order against him in early 2023, according to the suit.
On the day of the shooting, Pleasant had picked Davis up and taken him to her house on Carolina Road, and eventually called 911 to have him removed from the property.
“Johnson had approximately 10 deputies arrive at the scene sometime contemporaneous to his arrival,” and later tried to persuade Davis “to turn himself in to get arrested,” the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint notes, “Johnson never pulled his service weapon while having the conversation with [Davis],” but alleges that 10 deputies surrounded Davis, who ducked under a truck and laid on his stomach.
“Several, if not all of the deputies, opened fire on [Davis] while he was lying prone on his stomach,” the suit alleges. “[Davis] was struck numerous times and killed by a lethal shot to his head while lying prone under the truck.”
The lawsuit claims that footage captured by several deputies’ body-worn cameras contradicted a subsequent account of the shooting outlined in press release issued by the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s press release stated that Davis had been given a cigarette by a deputy, and as the deputy turned away, Davis “lunged at the officer” and was initially hit in the arm by the non-lethal round.
“The press release also stated that as deputies tried to approach the suspect, ‘he again lunged at deputies with the knife and was fatally shot,’” according to the suit.
The victim’s mother, Fujiwara, further claims that the State Bureau of Investigation didn’t conduct an independent investigation, as is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.
As the administrator for Davis’ estate, Fujiwara is seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory damages; damages for denial of the deceased’s right of due process; and damages for “lost commercial income” under each of five alleged claims for relief.
The suit alleges that Johnson, as the sheriff, “had in effect de facto policies, practices, and customs that were a direct and proximate cause of the unconstitutional violations” of Davis’ rights.
The suit also claims that the actions by the sheriff’s deputies (listed as John Doe 1-10 defendants) who responded to the 911 call on May 8, 2023 “were in violation of [Davis’] statutory, common law, and constitutional rights,” in that the deputies failed “to de-escalate and stand down until Sheriff Johnson had concluded his attempts to get [Davis] to surrender.”
The suit further alleges that the responding deputies violated Davis’ rights – under the Fourth, Fifth, and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution – in failing to issue verbal commands to him before fatally shooting him and subjecting him to excessive, deadly force.
A response hadn’t been filed on behalf of the sheriff or the 10 defendant deputies by press time Wednesday.
Fujiwara is being represented by attorney James E. Hairston, Jr. of the Hairston Lane law firm in Raleigh.
