Black nurse pulls into the wrong North Carolina driveway. Then she was allegedly held at gun point by off-duty cop and his wife: ‘Don’t move’
Sometimes, ordinary is only temporary
A wrong turn should not become a life-or-death situation. But for one Black nurse looking for a patient’s home, simply trying to get her bearings allegedly ended with two guns pointed at her and a warning not to move.
The encounter happened nearly eight years ago, but it is getting new attention after a former police officer began asking why no one was ever charged. It raises uncomfortable questions about what happens when authority follows someone beyond the job, especially when an off-duty officer is at the center of the confrontation.
According to Atlanta Black Star, Kandice Robinson claims Matthews Police Officer Nick Helms and his wife, Samantha, held her at gunpoint for roughly 15 minutes in 2018. Robinson repeatedly explained that she was a nurse looking for a patient’s house. Even her scrubs apparently weren’t enough to convince them at first.
Even the truth didn’t end it
On November 23, 2018, Robinson was driving through Mint Hill, North Carolina, before an overnight nursing shift at an elderly man’s home. It was her first time visiting the patient, and she was having trouble finding the address.
Robinson spotted an elderly woman outside a house and stopped to ask for directions. She claims the woman pointed her down the street and gave her permission to use the driveway to turn around. Robinson later learned the woman was Helms’ grandmother.
As Robinson turned around, she claims Helms and his wife came outside carrying guns. “They both had their guns pointed in my face,” Robinson recalled. She explained that she was a nurse looking for a client, but Helms allegedly responded, “I don’t believe you.”
Robinson claims Helms ordered her to keep both hands on the steering wheel. When she looked toward the porch using her rearview mirror, she recalls him warning, “If you move one more time, I’m going to shoot you in your face.”
Samantha then went inside and checked Robinson’s explanation with Helms’ grandmother. Robinson recalls her returning and saying, “She’s telling the truth, put your gun down.”
But Robinson claims Helms did not immediately lower his weapon. Instead, she alleges he moved the gun farther inside her car window while Samantha repeatedly told him to put it down. Sitting inside a vehicle offered little reassurance when keeping your hands visible may not end an armed police encounter.
“He refused to do it,” Robinson recalled. She claims Samantha told him around four times to lower the weapon before the couple eventually allowed her to leave.
By the time Robinson reached her patient’s home, she was trembling. “When I got to my client’s house, I was in so much fear,” she said. “The patient’s wife had to care for me that whole night.”
Mint Hill police said in 2018 that officers responded to a report about a suspicious vehicle and spoke with Robinson, Helms, and his wife. The couple denied Robinson’s allegations. No arrests were made, and Helms was not publicly identified because he had not been charged.
Now, former Matthews Police Officer Tyler Ross is pushing the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office to reconsider the case. “The fact that she was held at gunpoint in her car, not free to go, that’s a felony,” Ross argued. “That’s called kidnapping in North Carolina.”
North Carolina’s kidnapping statute requires unlawful confinement, restraint, or removal without consent for certain specified purposes, including terrorizing the victim. Ross claims an assistant district attorney told him prosecutors could not prove the necessary intent, an assessment he disputes.
Robinson also claims the district attorney characterized the encounter as a “simple mistake.” “Well, simple mistake comes ends with apology,” she responded.
Robinson says she only learned Helms’ identity after Ross began looking into the incident this year. Helms is now a sergeant with the Matthews Police Department. “They didn’t handle it like a real investigation,” Robinson said. “It was very hard for me to sleep for years.”
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