'Tragic Loss': N.C. Police Officer Killed in Grocery Store Shooting Mourned
By Susie C. Spear
Source News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.
GREENSBORO, NC — Tarell Isaac McMillian, a 34-year-old Greensboro man, has been charged with first-degree murder in the Monday shooting death of Greensboro Police Officer Michael T. Horan inside a grocery store here, warrants show.
McMillian, who also maintains an address in Wilmington, was arrested shortly after 1 p.m. Monday in Duplin County after fleeing the crime scene at Food Lion at 4709 Lawndale Drive and speeding east, leading law enforcement from multiple counties in a chase.
Horan, 44, a sworn officer with the GPD since 2018, was first to respond to the Greensboro Food Lion at about 11 a.m. on Monday after police received a call about a suspicious individual, possibly armed, inside the busy supermarket, according to a news release from the State Bureau of Investigation.
The agency is leading the murder probe at the request of the Guilford County District Attorney Avery Crump. No information was immediately available about McMillian’s date to appear in Guilford County District Court. McMillian is listed on warrants from Johnston County as having a Wilmington address, though Greensboro Police have said McMillian is a Greensboro resident.
“We are all struggling with the tragic loss of Officer Michael Horan, who was a valued and respected member of our Greensboro Police family,” Chief John Thompson said from police headquarters in an email on Tuesday.
“We’re especially grateful to everyone who worked around the clock to assist in the identification, arrest and charging of the individual responsible for Officer Horan’s death. We also want to thank our community and our law enforcement partners around the state for the support they have offered our department and for Officer Horan’s family during this difficult time.”
The shooting
After entering Food Lion Monday morning, Horan “made contact with the individual inside the store. After a brief struggle, the suspect pulled out a gun and shot the officer before leaving the scene in a vehicle. The officer did not have time to draw or fire his weapon,’’ the SBI release said.
Ramona Miller, 63, who was in the store at the time of the shooting, said Tuesday that she believes McMillian looks like the man she saw Monday morning in Food Lion. He was rushing through aisles, she said, and pushing carts aside to pass.
“It looks like the guy coming through the aisles, and he had his hoodie pulled down close to his face,’’ said Miller, who was shopping with her 6-year-old granddaughter when she heard five or six gunshots coming from near the produce section of the supermarket.
After the shooting Horan, McMillian sped east, authorities say.
Horan’s death was the city’s 43rd homicide this year, a GPD spokesperson said.
Deputies with the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office, along with officers from the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office — about two hours east of Greensboro — began pursuing McMillian after he drove into Sutton Town in Sampson County, according to the SBI release.
The State Highway Patrol then took over the pursuit and stopped McMillian by performing a PIT maneuver on I-40 near mile marker 360 at the Duplin County line, the SBI release said. PIT, short for “precision immobilization technique, is a tactic in which law enforcement forces a fleeing automobile to abruptly turn sideways, causing the driver to lose control and forcing a stop.
McMillian, now in custody in Guilford County and being held in the county’s Greensboro jail without bond, was arrested without incident, according to the SBI release. McMillian’s criminal record includes 17 minor offenses in New Hanover and Brunswick counties between 2011 and 2023, according to a Lexis Nexis report.
The Lawndale Food Lion was closed on Tuesday.
Investigators have not described the weapon McMillian allegedly used or any motive for the shooting, the second fatal shooting of a GPD officer in less than a year.
On December 30, 2023, Sgt. Dale Nix was shot and killed after intervening during a robbery at a Sheetz on Sandy Ridge Road in Greensboro. Nix was off duty at the time.
___
(c)2024 the News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.)
Visit the News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.) at www.news-record.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
