WILMINGTON — A proposal to convert the Wilmington Police Department’s shotgun arsenal to rifles was withdrawn from city council’s agenda Tuesday after council members questioned whether the move would send the wrong signal to the community.
While every WPD vehicle is equipped with a shotgun, the WPD is attempting to switch them out for rifles, now considered the industry standard. Compared to shotguns, rifles offer better accuracy and easier operation, increased effective range from 50 to 80 yards to more than 100 yards, and faster reload.
The WPD does currently allow officers to use personal rifles, which are inspected by armorers.
“We need to be able to have a consistent weapons platform across the board,” WPD Chief Ryan Zuidema told council members at Monday’s agenda review meeting. “We issue all our officers the same handgun. We want to make sure all our officers have the same long barrel weapon as well and a 12-gauge shotgun in today’s day and age, it’s just that’s a very limited use and very limited range as well.”
However, Mayor Bill Saffo’s motion to remove the proposal — a purchase of 90 rifles for $255,000 — was unanimously approved Tuesday night without discussion.
The day before, at council’s agenda review, Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Spears and council member Chakema Clinton Quintana indicated they were against the purchase currently. Spears didn’t think the timing was right.
“[B]ecause of some of the issues that we have going on concerning WPD and weapons and citizens in our community,” he said.
Earlier this month, WPD officers shot and killed 21-year-old Edilberto Espinoza Sierra in a downtown parking deck. According to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Sierra was initially identified as a suspect in a shooting in the deck, though Rafael Martinez has since been charged for the incident. The WPD claimed officers were approaching Sierra’s vehicle when the suspect accelerated to flee, prompting officers to discharge their weapons after the suspect’s vehicle hit another car and “narrowly missed officers.”
Two officers from the WPD and one deputy from the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office are on paid administrative leave, standard procedure during any investigation into a discharge of a weapon by law enforcement.
Sierra’s family held a protest in downtown Wilmington following the shooting, requesting transparency and justice in holding law enforcement accountable for their loved one’s death. They claimed Edilberto Sierra was unarmed and attempted to escape due to fear, after having been beaten up in the deck just moments before.
“It does seem like the temperature is not right for this to be approved or either brought to council, just keeping our ears to the ground and everything that’s going on,” Clinton Quintana said. “Maybe it could be reintroduced at a later time, another month or two, not completely just going away with it.”
It is unclear if WPD’s request precedes the shooting; the WPD did not answer Port City Daily’s questions on the matter.
The proposal states the WPD needs 180 rifles, half of which would have been purchased using excess funds in this fiscal year’s budget. The resolution approving the purchase notes the remaining half would be included in next fiscal year’s budget request; July 1 starts the new year.
Port City Daily asked the WPD if it plans to resubmit its request at a later date; Lt. Greg Willett told the outlet he did not know if it had been determined yet. Several other questions were asked, including about the switch from shotguns to rifles, though Willett said the WPD would not be answering.
“We aren’t discussing rifles. That was removed from the agenda,” he said.
Chief Zuidema did provide some context for the request at Monday’s meeting.
“We are just very bluntly, extremely behind the high curve,” Zuidema said.
The chief said WPD is “routinely” seeing criminals in the community and across the country who have firepower exceeding WPD’s capabilities. Though he didn’t name local examples — and the WPD declined to provide any — Zudiema brought up the 1997 North Hollywood shootout, a confrontation between the Los Angeles Police Department and two armed robbers in homemade body armor. The two robbers used illegally modified assault and semi-automatic ruffles that outmatched the LAPD’s pistols and revolvers; some officers decided to equip themselves with rifles from a nearby firearms dealer.
The shootout is often credited with inciting police forces across the country to seek out more tactical weapons. Another is the 1999 Columbine shooting, where officers waited more than 40 minutes before entering the school to confront the shooters.
Conducted in 2013, a Police Executive Research Forum survey of the 61 largest police agencies found 93% of agencies equipped at least some of their officers with rifles, largely AR-15 models; 94% said the same of shotguns, indicating departments are using both. Shotguns can be beneficial for more specialized applications, such as less-lethal rounds to apprehend suspects and door breaching.
WPD did not answer Port City Daily’s question on what would happen to the shotguns should they be replaced with rifles.
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