North Carolina sheriff’s deputies kicked in a man’s door Sunday, then pepper-sprayed him, shocked him with a Taser and ultimately shot him to death – all after the alleged victim refused to allow a warrantless search, his surviving housemate said.

“Not without a search warrant,” John Livingston told two officers who arrived after 3 a.m. and asked to look inside for a man who no longer lived in the home, housemate Clayton Carroll told WNCN hours after the incident.

Livingston, a 33-year-old father of three, then closed the door of their Spring Lake, North Carolina, trailer, Clayton said, igniting the confrontation that led to his death.

“The cop kicked in the door, got on top of him and started slinging him around,” he said. Shortly after, Livingston was shot multiple times on the trailer’s front porch.



Clayton laid on the blood-stained wooden porch to re-enact for WNCN his friend’s last moments, suggesting Livingston was shot on the deck following a struggle over the Taser.

Another witness at the scene, Bristol Edge, tearfully told the TV station she put a blanket over Livingston before he died.

The Harnett County Sheriff’s Office is being tight-lipped about the encounter, and it's unclear if the sheriff's deputies dispute any alleged details.

Sheriff Larry Rollins and spokesman Maj. Jeff Huber did not answer their office phones or respond to an emailed request for comment Monday.



The department told the TV station the officers were investigating an assault and the deputies involved have been placed on routine leave as North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation reviews the case.

The state bureau, also known as the SBI, only investigates officer-involved shootings upon request, generally by local prosecutors or law enforcement leaders. SBI spokesman Shannon O'Toole says the review of Livingston's death was requested by Rollins.

A backlog of medical examiner and ballistics reports means a final SBI report may not be prepared for two or three months, but O'Toole says "the bones of the investigation" should be done much sooner.