Mecklenburg County Police Department, North Carolina
End of Watch: Monday, May 4, 1970
Age: 44
Tour of Duty: 22 years
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: May 4, 1970
Weapon Used: Rifle
Suspect Info: Committed
Sergeant Lewis Robinson was shot and killed while attempting to serve a warrant with eight other officers.
Earlier in the day, a woman in a rural area called the electric company to report that her electricity was out. When a company employee arrived on the scene, he determined that the woman's water was out, not the electricity. The water had been turned off by a neighbor. As the employee prepared to leave, the neighbor exited his house. The neighbor fired several shots into the utility truck and at the employee.
The employee signed a warrant for the discharging of a weapon into occupied property. When the officers arrived on the scene, they surrounded the house and fired tear gas into it. When there was no response from inside, they determined the subject was not in the house and they began to search the area. The subject was hiding under a tree 50-feet away. The man opened fire with a military carbine rifle, striking Sergeant Robinson. The other officers returned fire and wounded the man, 54, critically. Shot in the head six times he stayed in a hospital several weeks and was later committed at Dorothea Dix Mental Hospital where he was deemed unfit to stand trial.
Sergeant Robinson was survived by his wife, daughter, and son. He served four years in the navy during World War II.