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Nearly eight years after a Black nurse said she was held at gunpoint by an off-duty North Carolina police officer and his wife, a former officer is asking prosecutors to take another look at the case.
Tyler Ross, a Black former Matthews Police Department officer, is urging the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office to review whether officer Nick Helms should face a felony kidnapping charge, according to Atlanta Black Star.
The case involves Kandice Robinson, who said she was driving through the Mint Hill neighborhood on November 23, 2018, looking for the home of a nursing patient when she stopped to ask an elderly woman for directions. Robinson said she received permission to use the woman’s driveway to turn around before Helms and his wife came outside with guns.
“They both had their guns pointed in my face, were like, ‘What are you doing here so late at night?’” Robinson told Atlanta Black Star.
Robinson said she explained that she was a nurse looking for a patient’s address, but Helms didn't believe her.
“If you move one more time, I’m going to shoot you in your face,” Robinson recalled Helms telling her.
Queen City (QC) News reported on the incident when it happened in 2018, saying Robinson claimed she was held at gunpoint by people she believed were impersonating police officers.
Mint Hill police said at the time that officers responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle and spoke with Robinson, Helms and his wife. No one was arrested, and police did not release Helms’ name because he had not been charged.
Ross, who joined the Matthews Police Department in 2022 and was fired in January 2025, began looking into Robinson’s case after leaving the department. He has separately alleged that he was fired after complaining about racial harassment and discrimination within the department.
“The fact that she was held at gunpoint in her car, not free to go, that’s a felony,” Ross told Atlanta Black Star. “That’s called kidnapping in North Carolina.”
North Carolina law defines kidnapping as unlawfully confining, restraining or removing someone without consent for certain purposes, including terrorizing the person.
Ross said he contacted the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office to ask why Helms had not been charged. According to Ross, an assistant district attorney told him prosecutors could not prove the intent necessary to pursue a kidnapping case.
Ross disputes the prosecutor’s alleged assessment and is pushing for the case to be reviewed.
Robinson said the encounter continued to affect her long after that night.
“They didn’t handle it like a real investigation,” she told Atlanta Black Star. “It was very hard for me to sleep for years.”
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