Officer always wanted to be a 'street cop': "(By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Meghan Cooke, cwootson@charlotteobserver.com, macooke@charlotteobserver.com) Before the accident, Fred Thornton was a few months shy of retiring from the job he'd always wanted to do, his family said Saturday.
But something went terribly wrong inside the officer's garage Friday evening as he was securing his SWAT equipment in his police car at his Mint Hill home."