Lashunda McLendon Police Had Her Killer In Custody An Hour Before Her Murder

Charlotte has a long history of bizarre crimes and homicides. This is no exception.

Cedar Posts has long criticized the liberal agenda, liberal DAs and prosecutors, judges and bleeding heart juries. 

The hard truth is that incarceration saves lives. This case not only proves that point but illustrates just how broken the system is and how bad it has become.

According to a local television news station CMPD Officers Police took the suspect to jail, but the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office refused to process the suspect and turned her away.

In fact CMPD drove the defendant back to the scene of the first assault with a deadly weapon call so that she could again find the victim and shoot her to death.

That woman Ebonee Rahman is now also charged with the victim's murder.

Ebonee Rahman Photo Courtesy MCSO

According to police records and local news, Just before 7:30 am on December 13, 2024, Lashunda McLendon called Char/Meck 911 after Ebonee Rahman, an acquaintance, threatened to shoot her on Archdale Drive just off of Nations Ford Road.

Lashunda McLendon Family Provided Photo

She Told 911:

"This girl just actually pulled a gun out on me and pointed it in my face ..." she said at the beginning of the call. " ... She kept telling me to get off her block. 'B****. I'm gonna have to shoot you.'"

With that call for service CMPD Officers were dispatched.

According to sources, the responding officer did not arrest Rahman on any charge connected to the reported threat rather "detained" her and took her to the Mecklenburg County Intake Center. 

Radio traffic suggests his decision followed an apparent unsuccessful search for a gun.

However, he did take Rahman into custody because when he ran her name through the National Crime Information Center database, he noticed she was wanted by the York County Sheriff's Office, connected to shoplifting and criminal conspiracy charges from June out of Fort Mill. 

With that information the CMPD officer drove the Rahman to the Mecklenburg County Intake.

"She had an extraditable warrant out of South Carolina. Took her downtown," the officer said to his supervisor over the radio after McLendon's murder. "They said that she has already been served in North Carolina on that warrant and therefore cannot be put in custody for that, so she was un-arrested and given a courtesy ride back."

Much to the frustration of McLendon's family, the officer returned Rahman to the scene.

Minutes later and shortly after 10 am, three people called 911 to report a shooting, as the 42-year-old, in her dying breaths, begged for help.

"My friend's been shot," one caller said. "Please come on. Please come on. Please come on."

"She's not responding ..." the second caller said. "She's bleeding. Everybody's panicking."

"She just shot her and then drove off," another caller said of the suspect.

But CMPD and the Mecklenburg County Sheriff and Magistrates had a chance to prevent a murder but didn't. Why?

CMPD hands are somewhat tied if no one at the jail is cooperating.

COURT RECORDS

Court records show CMPD first served Rahman with her fugitive charges out of South Carolina in July after they picked her up on a probation violation. That began a drawn-out process of securing a governor's warrant to bring her back to South Carolina. Records show 90 days passed without the courts receiving the signed warrant, so prosecutors, as the law allows, dismissed the charge.

Court documents show YCSO did not fill out the formal governor's warrant paperwork until late October. It then took more than a month to get the needed signatures in South Carolina before North Carolina officials could approve.

Rahman, meanwhile, walked out of the Mecklenburg County Detention Center in November on an unsecured bond tied to a still open child support case, according to an agency spokesperson. Rahman was technically still wanted, but free for the time being.

Gov. Henry McMaster's office said the governor signed the warrant the same day he received it on Dec. 4. By Dec. 13, the morning of the murder, MCSO knew a governor's warrant was almost ready, but the agency said it could not hold Rahman, because then-Gov. Roy Cooper hadn't signed it yet. He signed the paperwork three days later.

A spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Justice said the agency received the documents on Dec. 10 and secured the governor's signature within its "general timeline" of under a week. YCSO said, based on the severity of the underlying charges out of South Carolina, the length of time for the governor's warrant process was not unusual.

CP's Take: She was in violation of both her probation and pretrial release and bail agreements.She should have been held over.

The Officer Affidavit sheds more light on what happened:

On Friday, December 13, 2024, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officers responded to 340 Archdale Drive in reference to an Assault with Deadly Weapon with injury call for service. 

The 911 caller stated that his friend has been shot. A paramedic with MEDIC Unit pronounced the victim, Lashunda Shmicka McLendon (B/F, 06/11/1982), deceased at 1010 hours. Homicide Detectives and Crime Scene were requested and responded to the scene.

Detectives processed the scene which was an area beside the parking lot of 340 Archdale Drive. McLendon had gunshot wound to her chest. Detectives collected discharged cartridge casing from the scene.

Officers stated that earlier in the day, they responded to separate Assault with Deadly Weapon call for service spoke with the victim, McLendon, and suspect, Ebonee Makeesa Rahman (Rahman) (B/F, 12/20/1980).

At 1002 hours, separate 911 call was received for McLendon being shot. Detectives viewed surveillance footage from 340 Archdale Drive at the Archdale Minimart. The video shows Rahman approach McLendon on foot at approximately 0955 hours and remove her jacket and throw it to the ground. 

There is an altercation between Rahman and McLendon. Rahman walks towards the parking lot of the Archdale Minimart. Approximately thirty seconds later, Rahman walks back toward McLendon, meets an unknown black male, and retrieves handgun from his jacket. Rahman approaches McLendon, and shoots McLendon while she is seated in chair. Rahman picks up her jacket, then walks to her vehicle and flees the scene.

Detectives were able to positively identify Rahman as the suspect in this case based on officer's previous interactions with her and surveillance video.

Rahman is convicted Felon. Rahman was convicted of Felony Larceny, N.C.G.S. 14-72(A), Class Felony, on 09/06/2023 in Iredell County, North Carolina, and received sentence of 8M-19M. The offense occurred on 11/25/2022.

Based on the facts obtained during the investigation, there is probable cause that First Degree Murder and Possession of Firearm by Convicted Felon occurred and Ebonee Makeesa Rahman (B/F, 12/20/1980) committed these offenses

The Mecklenburg County Jail is normally a busy place, but around 8 am it is actually pretty quiet, so the reported reason the jail officers and magistrates refused to hold the suspect is troubling.

According to news reports it's unclear if the decision was to release the suspect was grounded in law or policy. An MCSO spokesperson said the agency could not re-arrest the woman on her outstanding fugitive charges in this instance, because of the way she was labeled in NCIC after her July arrest.

"The arresting officer, at the time, saw the NCIC hit that she was wanted, but it was in 'detained' status," 

MCSO Public Information Manager Sarah Mastouri said. "When someone is wanted and they have been served in another state, the NCIC goes into that status. When an NCIC hit is in 'detained' status, as hers [sic] was, it is not re-servable. So even though she was technically still wanted by York County, the NCIC entry was already in that status from her initial arrest on the fugitive. 

If South Carolina had re-entered their NCIC hit with a new entry at some point, we could have re-served Rahman as a fugitive. The CMPD officer missed that in the street. She should have never been detained or brought here as there was nothing to arrest her on ... MCSO says after a thorough review, all policies and procedures were followed."

A YCSO spokesperson said the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office is the only agency in the area that has a policy preventing a person from being re-arrested when the NCIC information notes "detained." MCSO deferred further questions to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Cedars Take:

Rahman was a ticking time bomb Garry McFadden's MCSO website hides Rahman's countless prior arrests, failure to appear charges, child support arrests and other past run-ins with the law. The CMPD Officer who drove her back to the victim's location became a Uber to Murder driver, and MCSO paid the fare.

The CMPD PIO issued News Release on December 13, 2024 and the follow-up "Case Updates" tell a strikingly different account as do local news media reporting.

No word about the subject who provided the gun to the killer. But is it too much to ask that maybe he should be charged as well?