Family of woman fatally shot by officers speaking out
Indian Trail, NC - By Tom Roussey - bio l email
INDIAN TRAIL, NC (WBTV) - The family of a Waxhaw woman fatally shot by officers after she was allegedly involved in a drug store robbery in Wesley Chapel is speaking out.
The shooting happened Tuesday night in a parking lot in Indian Trail but the Union County Sheriff's Office said Christina Yoryea Michailidis, 28, died Wednesday at 12:35 p.m. from injuries she received after being shot by deputies.
The Union County Sheriff's Office said Michailidis used what appeared to be a handgun to rob the Walgreen's Pharmacy at 5975 Weddington Road around 7 p.m. on Tuesday night.
Pharmacy workers called 911 and told police that Michailidis had displayed a handgun and demanded Oxycontin. After receiving about 180 pills, Michailidis left through the front entrance of the store, deputies say. At least one of the employees recognized her, saying she had been in the store on other occasions. (Click to hear the 911 call made by a Walgreen's employee after the robbery occurred.)
On the night of the shooting, Union County Communications received a call from Mary Michailidis at 7:46 p.m. who told them that her daughter, Christina, had called her about 15 minutes earlier.
According to Mary Michailidis, her daughter said she had just robbed the Walgreen's on Weddington Road and that she was going to take the pills and told her mother "goodbye." (Click to hear the 911 call made by Mary Michailidis.)
Michailidis' mother also told emergency workers her daughter was driving a gray 2006 Hyundai Sonata and she may be in possession of a BB gun that looks like a real gun.
"I begged them-- I said please it's not real," recalled Michailidis. "Please don't kill her. I asked them to please help me find her to save her from suicide not to help me kill her. To surround the car with guns and shoot her."
The sheriff's office says officers later received information that a vehicle matching the description of Michailidis' car was in front of Bear's Lair sports bar at the Sun Valley Commons shopping center in Indian Trail.
As four officers approached the car, Sheriff Eddie Cathey said Michailidis got out of the car and "pointed what appeared to be a firearm at the closest patrol officer." No deputies were injured.
Two of the four officers fired a total of three rounds at Michailidis, striking her with each shot. According to radio logs, the total elapsed time from the arrival of the first officer to the radio report of shots being fired was just 27 seconds. (Click to hear the police radio traffic after Michailidis was shot.)
Michailidis was taken by ambulance to Carolinas Medical Center-Main in Charlotte, where she died early Wednesday afternoon.
While investigators were processing of the scene, the weapon that Michailidis pointed at the patrol officer was located on the ground near where she fell after being shot. Investigators said the BB caliber gun is made by Walther and Walter and is designed to look like a Walther PPK firearm which comes in various calibers to include .380 and .32. Officers said there is very little difference in appearance between the two guns.
Thursday afternoon, Christina Michailidis' aunt, Robin Halsey, released a statement concerning her nieces' death.
"She was a loving and caring young woman and, yes, she had some problems with her health, depression and addictions," Halsey said. "The reports we are seeing and hearing make her sound like some kind of hardened criminal and this is far, far from the case."
Christina's sister, Daris Stanley agrees.
"The things that they keep switching around are not legitimate answers," said Stanley. "Just something to create a we've done the right thing so don't worry about it. But they did not do the right thing."
Christina's mother, Mary wonders why officers didn't take into account the fact her daughter had taken nearly all of the Oxycontin she stole.
"If they told her to raise her hand, she might have raised her hand with the gun in it," she said. "I don't know how impaired she was. But I do believe she didn't fully understand the circumstances and what was going to happen."
Halsey said the family has questions about why the rear window of Michailidis' car was shot out if she were standing in the parking lot as the sheriff's office said she was when she was shot by the officers.
"Also, her wound to the head was from the rear per the doctor and according to the sheriff, [it]was in the side of the head," Halsey said. "We will pursue this until every question is answered, truthfully."
The deputies who fired the shots have been identified as Sgt. Tim Turner and Deputy Sheriff Aaron Partridge. Turner has served nine years with the agency, and Partridge is an eleven-year veteran.
Sheriff Cathey described both men as "...seasoned and experienced officers who were forced to make a split-second decision that every law enforcement officer dreads." The deputies have been placed on administrative leave for the next several days, while the SBI investigates the shooting. This is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings in Union County.
"This was a tragic situation for everyone involved," Cathey said.
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