CHARLOTTE — A man recently had his charges dismissed after he fired a gun at an unsuspecting family, and the alleged victims of the shooting are frustrated with the decision.
James Ruel spoke with Channel 9 on the same front deck where he was sitting with his sister in July when a car came screaming up their gravel driveway. A man who was clearly agitated and looking for his girlfriend got out with a pistol and fired two shots into the deck.
“It was very hard to sleep last night, I’ve been on red alert since,” Ruel told Channel 9 reporter Mark Becker.
After the car pulled up, Ruel had pulled a gun of his own from his jacket pocket and found himself in a potentially deadly faceoff.
“About this far apart. I come up and he turns and he has the pistol trained on my face basically,” Ruel said.
Ruel said he backed down and tossed his gun behind him. He said the gunman picked it up, got in his car, and left.
Three weeks later, that gunman turned himself in, was charged with armed robbery and attempted murder, and was booked into Mecklenburg County’s jail. His bonds over the next three months totaled over $100,000.
But on Tuesday, a prosecutor called Ruel to say, “Sorry, we believe it happened, but I don’t think we can convince a jury on the evidence,” Ruel told Channel 9.
He was stunned.
In court paperwork, prosecutors said they dismissed the charges because when he was arrested, the suspect didn’t have either gun. While he admitted going to Ruel’s house that day, he denied firing any shots.
But Ruel said police could’ve done more.
“They didn’t have written statements that were never asked for,” Ruel said. “Body camera footage from my sister’s testimony which they didn’t have.”
Ruel said he believed justice had failed him and the public too.
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