May 2 (UPI) — President Joe Biden is to travel to North Carolina on Thursday to meet with families of four police officers who were killed earlier this week in a shootout.
The president is scheduled to arrive at Charlotte Douglas International Airport where he will “pay his respects to the brave law enforcement officers killed and wounded in the line of duty,” on Monday, the White House said in a statement to reporters.
“The president will meet with families of the fallen heroes, the wounded law enforcement officers and other law enforcement officers and elected officials,” it said.
The meeting with the families at the airport will be closed to the press.
Four law enforcement officers, including three U.S. Marshals, were killed and four others were wounded Monday in a shootout that erupted in a residential area of Charlotte as they were attempting to serve an arrest warrant.
The suspected gunman, identified as 39-year-old Terry Clark Hughes Jr., was also killed in the firefight.
Following the officers’ deaths, Biden released a statement describing them as “heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Biden has called for increased funding for law enforcement while simultaneously seeking stricter gun laws as he seeks to curb gun violence, which has accounted for more than 5,300 deaths and nearly 10,000 injuries so far this year, according to The Gun Violence Archive.
After meeting with the families, the president will head to Wilmington for a previously scheduled event where he will deliver remarks on his Investing in America agenda before returning to the White House Thursday evening.