Former Charlotte police chief backs Raleigh chief candidate's handling of officer who held gun to man's head

As Raleigh officials consider whom to hire as the city's next police chief, a former chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is speaking up for one of his former colleagues after reports that she had no problem with an officer seen in video holding a gun to a man's head.

Estella Patterson has been deputy chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department since 2019. She has worked her way up the ranks of the department since she started there in 1996.

In 2017, when she headed the police department's Internal Affairs Bureau, she defended a Charlotte officer who threatened to kill an unarmed man.

Footage from a body-worn camera obtained by WBTV in Charlotte shows officers arresting James Yarborough, and an officer identified as Jon Dunham can be heard threatening him.

"Stop. I will kill you,” Dunham said in the video as he pressed a gun to Yarborough’s head.

The arrest followed a traffic stop in which Yarborough tried to run from police. He later filed an excessive force complaint against Dunham.

"When you look completely at the totality of the circumstances, you have to ask yourself, is that reasonable? And based on everything, it was reasonable," Patterson told WBTV when asked about the bodycam footage.

Days later, then-Police Chief Putney called Dunham’s behavior indefensible.

But Putney told WRAL News that, while Patterson said Dunham's behavior was reasonable in a legal context, she did further investigate him for "unbecoming" conduct.

"That’s not how we do business," Putney said, condemning Dunham's actions. "It was actually Chief Patterson who said, 'Chief, I’m really struggling with this,' and I agreed. I was struggling mightily with it as well. So, she proposed to me an additional allegation of unbecoming conduct."

Dunham was suspended for unbecoming conduct and later left the department.

"Truly, she did exactly what I want these emerging chiefs who are in difficult positions to hold their officers accountable to do," Putney said.

Patterson hasn't responded to WRAL News' requests for comment, nor has Raleigh City Manager Marchell Adams-David, who will recommend her choice for chief to City Council, possibly as early as Tuesday.

The other two candidates for the job are Rob Lowe, deputy superintendent of the Cambridge (Mass.) Police Department, and Darryl McSwain, chief of police for the Maryland-National Capital Park Police.

Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown retires on June 30, and officials have said they would like to have the new chief in place by then.