A U.S. Army Special Forces colonel will not face charges after he fatally shot a utility worker in May, authorities said. The shooting took place outside the unnamed soldier's home near Carthage.
Moore County District Attorney Mike Hardin said the soldier’s actions were justified under the North Carolina Castle Doctrine. That law allows defensive force when there’s a perceived threat within one's home or property.
The worker, Ramzan Daraev, was surveying utility poles for a fiber optic construction project and taking photos of individual poles, some with the soldier’s home in the background. Daraev was a Russian citizen and an ethnic Chechen.
In the first of two 911 calls, at 8:12 p.m. on May 3, the soldier’s wife said she thought he was taking photos of their children and house.
She asked for law enforcement help.
Investigators from the Moore County Sheriff's Office said the soldier, initially unarmed, approached Daraev to ask what he was doing. The soldier went back to his house to get a handgun and walked back to Daraev to keep an eye on him while a deputy was on the way.
Then, in a second more frantic call, at 8:25 p.m., the woman said her husband badly needed law enforcement help, and she yelled for someone to get her a rifle.
"The confrontation escalated when Daraev reportedly became agitated and lunged at the homeowner after repeatedly refusing to leave the property," said a Sheriff's Office's news release. "The homeowner reported firing several shots in response to Daraev’s advance. Under the North Carolina Castle Doctrine, the homeowner's actions are protected, providing legal justification for using defensive force."
Daraev entered the U.S. in 2022 over the southern border. His nationality — and the fact that the soldier is a Special Forces officer — sparked Internet conspiracy theories about Russian espionage.
But investigators say there was no question he was doing work for the utility project; a Moore County deputy actually had seen him earlier in the day at another location and asked what he was doing. Daraev’s English was so poor that the deputy had to use a phone app to translate their conversation.
According to the news release, Daraev had nothing to identify him as a utility worker. He was wearing dark shorts, a burgundy shirt, and flip-flops. He was working into twilight and hadn’t notified property owners of his presence.
The Sheriff's Office said Daraev was not armed and had nothing with him except a cell phone when law enforcement arrived on the scene after the shooting.
The investigation found confusing relationships between the companies involved in the fiber optic project. The local utility company, Brightspeed, was working with a New Jersey company called Utilities One to survey the area. The investigation found Daraev was doing work for a subcontractor to Utilities One called Cable Warriors, but the two companies were related.
Utilities One didn’t return calls seeking comment.
The Sheriff's Office said it received several reports after the shooting of people being seen on private property in same general area earlier in the evening. According to the release, those people were likely part of the group working with Daraev.
“None of the citizens making those reports were aware that the persons they observed on their properties were conducting utility work,” the release said.
The Sheriff’s Office said in the news release it had requested an investigation by the N.C. Labor Department into things like the safety practices for workers involved in the broadband project.
A Labor Department spokesperson said Tuesday it had closed its investigation because Daraev appeared to be an individual contractor rather than an employee of one of the companies involved.
