Few answers for Durham mother whose son was shot and killed by SBI agent in Apex

It’s been nearly a month since police officers arrived at Esperanza Rafael Sanchez’s home in East Durham to tell her that her 18-year-old son had been fatally shot at an Apex shopping center.

The grieving mother still has more questions than answers as the investigation continues into the death of Davye Rafael Sanchez. He was shot by an N.C. State Bureau of Investigation agent after police say he and a woman stole a box of ammunition from Academy Sports + Outdoors store on the afternoon of April 11.

Rafael Sanchez, 42, says she is in shock She had never even heard of the SBI and doesn’t understand how one of its agents could have killed her son for an alleged crime like shoplifting.

“Stealing is wrong and has a punishment,” she said in Spanish. “I’m not justifying it. But they didn’t have to take his life.”

Details have been sparse from the Apex Police Department, which is investigating the fatality in its jurisdiction.

Denzel Ward, the 29-year-old SBI agent, is on administrative leave pending the investigation and the SBI’s internal review, special agent Shannon O’Toole said in an email.

No charges have been taken out against the woman, whose name has not been released by police.

A first for the Wake DA

When local law enforcement officers shoot someone in North Carolina, the agency they work for typically requests that the SBI investigate the case, and in Wake County, release their findings to District Attorney Lorrin Freeman to determine whether the officers acted lawfully.

But the SBI isn’t conducting the independent investigation this time because the officer involved is one of their own.

“It is the first time that I have had to rely on a local agency to conduct an officer-involved shooting investigation,” Freeman told The N&O in an email.

Freeman expects the Apex Police Department’s findings to be turned over to her office within the next few months.

‘Why do such things happen?’

Before burying her son late last month, Rafael Sanchez said she learned that Davye had been shot at least twice.

“I truly don’t know, and I ask God why such things happen,” she said.

Dressed in dark colors the week after her son’s funeral, she told The News & Observer she had not been to work at her job as a hospital laundry attendant since the shooting.

Rafael Sanchez migrated from the state of Michoacán in Mexico to North Carolina in the 1990s, she said. She lives with her husband and said her son leaves behind two siblings in North Carolina and another in Mexico.

Davye dropped out of Southern High School in Durham during his sophomore year.

He had struggled academically because of bullying tied to his his previous weight, which had given him depression, his mother said.

He was working in a plant nursery while taking online classes to get his high school diploma.

“There are people attacking my son without knowing the truth,” Rafael Sanchez said. “Before judging a person who isn’t here anymore, the truth should be out. I’m not justifying his actions. I simply want the truth.”

Rifle found at scene, police say

Apex Police Chief Jason Armstrong previously told reporters Ward was on duty and shopping at the Academy Sports store when Davye and the woman ran out with the box of ammunition to their car and encountered the agent.

The car, a Mazda 3, belongs to Rafael Sanchez, she said.

An AR-15-style rifle reported stolen from Siler City was found on the ground at the scene in addition to another firearm, although Armstrong declined to say if it was loaded or if it was used to threaten Ward.

Rafael Sanchez knows the woman involved in the incident and said she had disapproved of Davye’s friendship with her.

She said her son would disappear for days at a time with the woman but that they were not romantically involved.

911 calls offer clues

Six 911 calls released by police last month describe the pair’s altercation with Ward in the parking lot.

“There’s a shooting at Academy Sports,” one caller told the dispatcher. “There’s a body on the ground,”

Callers described the person who was shot as a young man and said he was lying motionless on the ground, and described the shooter as a man remaining at the scene.

“I think there’s one person dead on the ground,” one caller said.

Another caller reported hearing at least two shots and described a woman lying on the ground at the scene.

Rafael Sanchez listened to the 911 call recordings and believes they incriminate Ward.

“In the audios you can hear that no one knew that (Ward) was an officer,” she said.

One caller described a man choking another person.

“He has him on the floor, and he’s like, choking him,” a female caller told the 911 operator.

The 911 operator asked the caller if she saw “the suspect” of the reported shooting.

“Yeah, the suspect has the guy in, like, the choking position on the floor,” the caller said.

Sanchez described her son as “solamente un flaquito” or “just a skinny little guy,” saying she struggles to believe he could overpower Ward.

“I’ve been told that there were people recording a video at the scene,” she said. But so far no video has surfaced.

Since the funeral, Rafael Sanchez’s living room has been home to a large altar with a wooden cross, flowers, candles and a portrait of Davye.

Outside the home, a pitbull mix named Zoey that once belonged to Davye sits impatiently and whimpered in a kennel.

“She misses him,” Rafael Sanchez said.

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