The District Attorney's Office concludes the officer acted 'lawfully" in an officer-involved shooting in Catawba County last November. 41-year-old Irecas Rayshion Valentine was killed in Hickory by a Catawba County Sheriff's Office Narcotics Investigator during a drug investigation. District Attorney David Learner states in a release issued Tuesday that the SBI had spent considerable time looking into the officer-involved shooting - interviewing witnesses, photographing the scene, collecting items of physical evidence, and reviewing body camera footage. The SBI presented findings to the DA's team; made up of experienced prosecutors, a retired US Marshal, legal assistants, and a retired captain from the Burke County Sheriff's Office with 26 years of law enforcement experience. The release noted several apparent facts following review of the evidence - noting that Valentine was operating a deadly weapon, he directly looked at officers and could hear their commands, and that he refused to comply with those commands thereby putting an investigator's life at risk. Learner states NC law recognizes the principle of self-defense, which is the inherent right to use deadly force to protect one's self or others from death or great bodily harm.

Additional funds were taken out of the general fund balance in order to cover out-of-county jail housing costs in Tuesday night's regular Burke County Board of Commissioners meeting. Sheriff Steve Whisnant asked for an additional $215,000 from the general fund balance in order to cover the costs due to the increased number of inmates Burke Catawba Jail has had to house this year. The jail is at full capacity and the funds ave been exhausted from having to pay for inmates from Burke County being housed in additional counties. Additional funds were needed to pay for housing from January 1st to June 30th. The Sheriff's Office expects to house between 20-30 inmates out of county per month for the remainder of the fiscal year. It costs $40 a day to house an inmate in a different county. Commissioners approved unanimously to allocate the extra funds from the general fund balance. The Board also approved to fund $15,000 from the general fund balance to supply office furniture for the District Attorney's Office and the Honorable Judge Kuehnert. When two DA's were fired recently, they took their personal furniture from the office forcing the County Manager to use furniture from the finance office to replace what had been taken. Although the majority of commissioners agreed this is something that should be in the budget for next year, it was approved in a 4-1 vote.