City of Charlotte to Pay $700,000 in 2006 Cell Tower Technician Death

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In 2006, Anthony Wayne Furr was working on repairing a cell phone tower when he was shot and killed by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer. The City Council approved a settlement of $700,000 during a closed session on Monday night. According to the Charlotte Observer, “Furr, 41, was working on a tower off Albemarle Road around 1 a.m. on July 20, 2006, a time of the day least likely to disturb cellphone customers. A bartender working nearby saw Furr’s AFL Network Services truck and called police about a suspicious vehicle. When an officer shouted at the repairman not to move, police said Furr – who was wearing a uniform – pulled a gun and did not obey commands to put the weapon down. One officer, Anthony Payne, fired three times. He said Furr was moving toward him with the gun in his hand. Two of the bullets struck Furr in the chest. He died soon after. The gun was found outside the shed where Furr had been working. Investigators said they couldn’t tell how it got there – whether Furr had tossed it before the shooting or it had flown out of his hand after he was hit. Attorneys for Furr’s sister argued that the repairman couldn’t have heard the police officers because of the loud air-conditioning units at the cellphone tower. They also said that Furr would have had trouble seeing because the area in which he was working was brightly lit, making it hard to see in the distance. The complaint also alleged that Furr held a tool that officers mistook as a gun. In pretrial interviews, the family attorneys grilled officers on why they pulled their weapons when the company logo on Furr’s truck was clearly visible and the gate to the tower and had been unlocked and still held the key.”

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