The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation into the Scotland Neck Police Department after charges were dropped Monday in a shooting death that occurred in 2021, the agency said in a statement today.

The SBI said the request was made by the district attorneys for the Seventh and Eighth Prosecutorial Districts and is related to the “Scotland Neck Police Department’s handling of the murder of Latoya Lawrence.”

The SBI statement offered no other details, citing that this is an active investigation.

Antonio Clark and Akeshia Clark were charged in the August 7, 2021 shooting death of Lawrence.

The police department said at the time it responded to what was originally reported as a single-vehicle crash at the intersection of Grace and Tenth Streets.

What they found, however, was that Lawrence had died inside her vehicle from a gunshot wound.

According to eCourts records, a first-degree murder charge against Mr. Clark was dismissed without leave in Halifax County Superior Court Monday.

Charges of conspiracy and discharging a weapon into a vehicle with serious injury had been dismissed without leave against him on August 30, 2021, according eCourts records.

Also on Monday Mrs. Clark had charges of conspiracy and discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle with serious injury dismissed against her without leave.

The dismissal form says there was insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution against the couple following “a thorough review of all evidence and conferring with law enforcement.”

The state, according to the form, did not believe the case would survive a motion to suppress. “The state has an obligation to preclude evidence from trial that is obtained in violation of a defendant’s constitutional rights,” the document says. “Statements from law enforcement that potential evidence, not received by the state, were lost, or destroyed, further hinder the state’s ability to effectively prosecute this matter.”