No charges against US soldier for shooting a Chechen

The US Attorney's Office has declined to file charges against a member of the US military who shot and killed 35-year-old Chechen asylum seeker Ramzan Daraev in North Carolina in May. A police investigation had previously concluded that the soldier's actions were justified under state law.

The officer had “reasonable belief” that the unarmed man posed a threat, the Moore County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Monday announcing the conclusion of its investigation.

“The homeowner's actions were deemed justified under the North Carolina Castle Doctrine, which allows the use of force in self-defense in situations where there is an imminent threat to personal and family safety in one's home or on one's property,” the sheriff's office said.

The incident raised suspicions of espionage at the time and sparked controversy over the way journalists portrayed the shooting.

The shooting occurred about an hour from Fort Liberty, one of the largest U.S. military bases. Initial media reports speculated that Daraev may have been conducting surveillance on military personnel. Daraev's employers and family said he was performing utility work.

The sheriff's office's latest statement confirms that Daraev was engaged in supply work, but it also says that he and his colleagues were not wearing uniforms or special equipment, as VOA previously reported.

The fact that no charges were brought against Daraev has angered his family. They have been demanding justice for his murder for months and are considering further legal action.

“I will continue to fight for justice for my brother,” Roman Daraev, the victim’s brother, told VOA.

Unclear incident

On the evening of May 3, an unidentified military official, whom the media identified as a colonel in the U.S. Army Special Forces at Fort Liberty, spotted Daraev on the property next to his home on the rural outskirts of Carthage, North Carolina. The soldier believed Daraev was photographing his house and children.

The officer's wife made two calls to police in which she described Daraev as aggressive and said her husband had trouble communicating with him.

When police arrived at the scene at around 8:32 p.m., Daraev was dead from multiple shots fired at close range.

In reporting by the US television channel Fox News, Daraev was initially described as an undocumented immigrant and the shooting was portrayed in the context of attempts by foreign nationals to infiltrate US military facilities.

However, the Fox News journalist who reported on the incident later clarified on social media that Daraev was in the country legally, according to immigration documents released by his family. The television channel subsequently deleted the report from its website.

Journalist Seth Harp published a photo of a valid C08 work permit issued in Daraev's name. Such permits are issued to people whose asylum applications are still pending.

Utilities One, which described Daraev as its subcontractor, said in a statement that he came to the United States “to escape the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”

In June, Daraev's colleague Kazbek Khazbulatov told VOA that he and Daraev, along with four other Chechen men living in the Chicago area, traveled to North Carolina to monitor power poles as part of a fiber optic project. They carried a map of power poles and were asked to take photos of them with their cell phones.

Daraev was killed on a Friday. Their uniforms were supposed to be delivered the following Monday.

New information

Investigative information released Monday provides new details about the shooting but leaves several questions unanswered.

According to the sheriff's office, business records indicate that although Daraev was not in uniform, he performed “legitimate utility work” for Cable Warriors, a subcontractor of Utilities One.

Recovered images suggest it was “common practice” for the group to work after dark, likely without notifying property owners – something atypical for the industry, the sheriff's office said, citing the opinions of other unnamed utility workers.

VOA reached out to Utilities One for comment but did not receive a response. VOA could not find contact information for Cable Warriors.

Local law enforcement also said that around 6:30 p.m. on the day of the shooting, a sheriff's deputy encountered Daraev walking near power poles in a “remote field” a mile from where the shooting later occurred.

The deputy interrogated Daraev and let him go, saying that no crime had been committed.

The sheriff's office statement also contains information about the confrontation between Daraev and the special forces officer.

“According to the homeowner, Daraev became aggressive and refused to leave the property. At one point, he claimed he was a Chechen citizen who had served in the Russian army and fought in Ukraine. However, investigators were unable to establish any previous foreign military status for Daraev,” the sheriff's office said.

The Daraev family denies this claim. In a post on Instagram, “Justice for Ramzan Daraev,” an account controlled by the family, called this information a “blatant lie.”

Roman Daraev told VOA that his brother had never served in the Russian army and certainly had not fought in Ukraine.

He said Ramzan Daraev and other family members left Russia for Kazakhstan in September 2022 after the Kremlin announced a “partial mobilization” of military reservists. From there, they traveled to Turkey, Mexico and finally the United States.

The Sheriff's Office determined that Ramzan Daraev crossed the southern border into the United States on December 16, 2022.

After Daraev's murder, police interrogated his nephew, who was also monitoring power lines in the area.

The nephew, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, told VOA that police asked him whether Daraev might have ties to espionage.

“We said we are not involved in this. It has nothing to do with us,” he said. “We came here to seek asylum and protection in this country.”

Open questions

Monday's statement provides only limited information about what happened before the shooting, including that there appeared to be no other witnesses.

Ramzan Daraev was on the phone with his nephew when the soldier approached him. Before Daraev hung up, the nephew heard someone asking in English, according to VOA: “What are you doing? What are you doing?”

The Sheriff's Office notes that at the time of the incident, Ramzan Daraev was wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops and was carrying only a cell phone.

But it also states that the confrontation between Daraev and the soldier “escalated when Daraev reportedly became agitated and lunged at the homeowner after he repeatedly refused to leave the property. The homeowner reported firing several shots in response to Daraev's advance.”

Daraev's brother says it would make no sense if Daraev had attacked an armed man. The family has long argued that Daraev's wounds – reportedly two in the back, one in the head and one in the hand – suggest he fled.

They say they are still waiting for the chief medical officer's report.

Meanwhile, Moore County Sheriff's investigators said they were still trying to gain access to Daraev's cellphone and were continuing to investigate the “operational background” of Utilities One and Cable Warriors and “reviewing digital evidence, including electrical infrastructure plans related to utility expansion that were made available to employees from a Russian cloud server.”

According to the statement, the sheriff's office voluntarily released all case records to the FBI and the Army Criminal Investigation Division. The former declined to comment, while the latter did not respond to a request for comment from VOA.

The sheriff's office has also requested an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation into labor practices related to the incident.