Dash camera video and investigative documents are raising new questions about the fatal shooting of a Black motorist by a Georgia state trooper nearly four years ago.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/23880779

Julian Lewis didn’t pull over for the Georgia State Patrol cruiser flashing its blue lights behind him on a rural highway. He still didn’t stop after pointing a hand out the window and turning onto a darkened dirt road as the trooper sounded his siren.

Five minutes into a pursuit that began over a broken taillight, the 60-year-old Black man was dead — shot in the forehead by the white trooper who fired a single bullet mere seconds after forcing Lewis to crash into a ditch. Trooper Jake Thompson insisted he pulled the trigger as Lewis revved the engine of his Nissan Sentra and jerked his steering wheel as if trying to mow him down.

“I had to shoot this man,” Thompson can be heard telling a supervisor on video recorded by his dash-mounted camera at the shooting scene in rural Screven County, midway between Savannah and Augusta. “And I’m just scared.”

But new investigative details obtained by The Associated Press and the never-before-released dashcam video of the August 2020 shooting have raised fresh questions about how the trooper avoided prosecution with nothing more than a signed promise never to work in law enforcement again. Use-of-force experts who reviewed the footage for AP said the shooting appeared to be unjustified.

  • s38b35M5@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    4 months ago

    It’s not a done deal yet, but there’s occasionally hope,like in this one: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/06/24/court-no-immunity-for-so-anyway-i-started-blasting-cop-who-killed-someone-for-the-crime-of-being-at-home/

    …cop entered a house and started shooting even though no one in the house matched the suspect’s description and seemingly just because he had a gun and power to use it.

    “The video footage, the district court concluded, shows that Snowden did not have time to comply. And in his deposition testimony, Officer Garza, another police officer on the scene, agreed that Casanova started shooting as he said “Let me see your F-ing hands.”).”

    …

    The case goes back down to the lower court to be decided by a jury. As the appeals court notes, any “reasonable” officer would have recognized these acts of violence to be unconstitutional. But as the narrative and numerous footnotes show, it would be extremely charitable to call Officer Casanova “reasonable.” He’s a loose cannon and a detriment to his department. Hopefully, this case resolves not only in favor of the plaintiffs, but with a firing of the officer for being exactly the sort of cop that makes cops look bad.