Tears, sobs and screams. That’s how the family of 27-year-old Christopher Carter of Akron reacted Tuesday evening when they finally heard details of his death Sunday in Portage County.
Carter, who was accused of holding a woman hostage in a laundry room at an apartment building in Kent during a nine-hour standoff, was shot in the back of the neck by police. His death ended the ordeal.
The family didn’t understand his death because members had been working with the police negotiator on the scene to try to convince him to surrender.
“If they had just let him see my face, or one of our faces, I could have talked him out of there,” said Carter’s sister, Christina, 24.
The family said they sent voice-mail messages — at the request of the negotiator — from his children, a 6-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, saying “We love you, Daddy” and “You are the best daddy in the world and we love you.”
After being unable to find answers Monday and Tuesday from Kent police about the shooting, Carter’s family called the Portage County Coroner’s office from the mother’s house in Barberton Tuesday, to see what they could find out.
Although the family was not asked to identify Carter’s body, they knew that his body was there and an autopsy was going to be performed before the body would be released to them.
They put the call on speakerphone, to allow a reporter to hear the conversation.
A forensic investigator at the coroner’s office offered his condolences and then told them the autopsy was completed Tuesday morning and the body was in Cuyahoga County and would be released to the funeral home. He tried to explain the situation.
“It was ruled a homicide and in normal circumstances the family would have been contacted immediately, but because it was a police shooting and there is an investigation the role of jurisdiction was put out of our hands,” he said.
“So what happened,” asked sister Christina.
“He was shot in the back of the neck,” a Portage County forensic investigator said.
“How many times was he shot,” she asked.
“One time,” said the investigator.
Sobbing, mother Diane Carter fell to her knees, rocking back and forth.
“He didn’t even see it coming,” she said. “I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye one last time or to tell him I love him.”
Christina also broke down in tears and ran out of the room screaming.
Questions and answers
Melissa Anderson, Christopher Carter’s ex-mother-in-law, who has custody of his two children, grabbed the phone.
“What time did you receive a call from police to go to the scene [on Sunday]?” she asked.
The investigator replied, “9:21 p.m.”
He told them the investigation was being handled by the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation and not Kent police.
It was the first time the family had details of the shooting. They were referred to Lt. Michael Lewis, the Kent Police Department public information officer, who told the Beacon Journal that Carter was shot not by Kent police, but by a member of the regional SWAT team. The team is made of up various officers from surrounding police departments. Lewis could not say which officer was responsible for the shooting.
Anderson said Cuyahoga Falls police came to her house shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday to ask for her help with negotiations. Christopher Carter had told Kent police to contact her.
Anderson met the negotiator near the Kent apartment complex. She said the negotiator asked her to send Carter a voice mail with his children telling him something positive and to send photos of the children. Carter was given a police phone. Anderson sent both.
Why was he shot?
Anderson said the negotiator asked if Carter was violent.
“I told them no, and if he had a gun it wouldn’t have had any bullets in it. I told him he was probably high, because he used drugs. … He was a drug addict, but he’s not a violent person,” she said. “… There’s nothing on his record that would justify putting a bullet in him.”
Family members said they were dismissed at the scene Sunday evening after police released a teargas bomb, and they saw the woman who was the alleged hostage leave in an ambulance.
The family was reassured that the standoff between Carter and the woman, Amber Weathers, had been resolved. Family members said they did not know Weathers.
“It was about 9:30 p.m. when police officers came to the sidewalk and told us Chris was fine, that he walked out of the building and got into the ambulance on his own free will. One officer even said he was going to the hospital and then probably to jail,” said Anderson.
Christina, Carter’s sister, said she called every hospital in the area, but couldn’t find her brother. She said she wanted to know where he was, but police were not returning her calls.
Rumors and a dream
A couple of hours later, two friends called to say they heard on the news that Christopher was dead.
“That’s when we found out he was dead,” Anderson said. “On the news. I called the police right away and no one could tell me anything. Finally one investigator said he couldn’t tell me anything about the investigation, but verified Chris was deceased.”
Anderson said she did hear from the person who called police about the hostage situation.
“The person, who works in the building, said the two went to the laundry room to get high, the person saw them using drugs and told them they couldn’t do that in there so they went to the next building where Weathers lives and used the laundry room there to use the drugs, so the person called police,” Anderson said. “… They were probably both scared after police arrived, they both had warrants.”
Anderson said there were all kinds of rumors on Facebook that Carter had a bag full of guns in the room, and then it was one gun, which turned out to be a BB gun, then there was a knife involved.
“The police never mentioned any of that. And it wasn’t until we heard on the news that he supposedly held the girl hostage at knifepoint.’’
Diane Carter said her son had distanced himself from the family and he had slipped into a deep depression after his father died from a heart attack.
“I hated that I had to tell my grandkids that their father is dead,” Anderson said. “His son … talked about a dream he had about his father. He told me he knew his dad was going to be all right because in his dream he was boxing with the devil with Michael the angel by his side and his father gave the devil an uppercut. His father used to be a boxer.”
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.