On Thursday, June 26, 2025, at approximately 11:56 p.m. Officers stopped a motorcycle in the 700 block of U.S. Highway 70 for multiple violations, including failure to display a registration plate, speeding, and reckless driving. The driver failed to stop for blue lights and sirens, fleeing at a high rate of speed into Conover, where a collision occurred between the motorcycle and a patrol vehicle on Northern Drive NW.
Following the collision, a brief physical altercation ensued, during which the driver—identified as Camden Skyler Childers, 21, of Stanley, North Carolina—was shot. Officers immediately began life-saving measures until EMS arrived. Childers was transported by Catawba County EMS to Catawba Valley Medical Center, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
The officer who discharged their weapon has been placed on administrative leave, in accordance with departmental policy, pending the outcome of an internal investigation and a separate probe by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).
No further details regarding this incident are available at this time.
This incident remains under active investigation, and anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Newton Police Department at 828-465-7430.