According to an interview Barrett gave to the North Georgian newspaper shortly after Ayers' death, the pastor had seen her walking near a gas station on her way back to an extended-stay motel where she was living with her boyfriend. (She had allegedly sold an undercover officer $50 worth of cocaine.) Rickman would tell a local paper that the investigations went to extraordinary lengths, and,I do not see how anybody could say the process was unfair based on the lengths that they went to.. Officer Billy Shane Harrison then opened fire, shooting Ayers in the stomach. Parlez-en ! When they broke in, Johnston (who lived alone in a high-crime area of the city and kept a gun in her house for protection) assumed she was being the victim of a home invasion and fired a shot. WebAfter Ayers tried to drive past the descending officers, Harrison shot and killed him. The grand jury also heard from Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter and former Stephens County District Attorney Mike Crawford. For three days in December, a grand jury was presented with the interviews and watched the video. The raid was conducted based on bad information from an informant, but a thorough search of the house turned up no evidence of drug dealingand an autopsy showed no evidence of drugs in Menas body. Kathryn Johnston; Atlanta, Georgia, 2006. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is looking into the shooting. And even today, police acknowledge he was not using or trafficking in illicit drugs. Tragically, that cost Ayers his life when, on September 1, 2009, he gave a woman named Johanna Jones Barrett $23 to help her pay her rent. Stephens County District Attorney Brian Rickman and Assistant District Attorney Rick Bridgeman presented the case. They say Ayers backed his car into one agent and another fired at him as he maneuvered his car in a threatening manner. They followed the car as Ayers dropped the woman off at a gas station. They first said he was part of their drug investigation all along, then retracted. No drugs were found in the house, and Bill Ankeny (El Montes assistant police chief) later acknowledged that there was never any evidence of the Paz family being involved in drug dealing. Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press. Police later said that was not true. WebLOGAN A 29-year-old Ogden man has been arrested for allegedly shooting at a group of teenagers in Providence Canyon. Wilson, however, was in one of the bedrooms; when Chavalia fired shots into that bedroom, she was killed. Police later determined what they had seen was not a drug transaction, but "other circumstances were involved, and that's part of the investigation," Bankhead said. One of the people he had been helping was a woman who had a history of problems. On the day Ayers was killed, Harrison had yet to take a series of firearms training classes required for his certification as a police officer. In the end, the jury decided the shooting was justified. Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Review & Giveaway: What Do We Do When Nobody is Listening? Franklin said Ayers touched a lot of people and that makes it hard for some to accept that he may have had a relationship with Barrett. All rights reserved. Ayers, attempting to leave the scene, was shot by Harrison. WebLast September, Ayers, a 28-year-old Baptist pastor from Lavonia, Georgia, was gunned down by a North Georgia narcotics task force in the parking lot of a gas station. (You can watch surveillance video of the altercation here.) Jesse Jackson to right-wing libertarians like Ron Paul, Walter Williams and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnsonhave pointed out that the war on drugs has become much deadlier than the drugs themselves. In the burned toddler raid, Terrell told the paper thatDistrict Attorney Brian Rickman had already cleared the task force of any wrongdoing. Your email address will not be published. One of the bullets reportedly grazed one of the victims. Terms Of Use, praised the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They said he had given her a ride to the motel where she lived, and was giving her rent money when spotted by narcotics detectives. A cafeteria-style restaurant leads this list of 12 popular spots, SPONSORED: See the Great Smoky Mountains in style. And while Johnston was lying on the floor dying, Smith handcuffed her. He suspects they are private detectives. Rickman told the AJC that calls to his office started the day after the shooting. In September 2009, Johnathan Ayers, a 28-year-old Baptist pastor from Lavonia, Ga., was gunned down by a North Georgia narcotics task force in the parking lot of a gas station. Rodolfo Rudy Cardenas; San Jose, California, 2004. But instead of apprehending her at the motel, they instead followed Ayers, the stranger they'd just seen give her a ride and hand her some cash. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. A lawyer representing Ayers' widow told the Toccoa Record he was disappointed by the grand jury's decision and that a civil lawsuit would follow. Vous avez des problmes de TNT ? The Rev. The suit has since meandered through a series of 208 motions, depositions and other court filings. But the task force also serves two other counties, and so is also overseen by the sheriffs of those counties. But a lot more shooting was done by the officers: a total of 39 shots were fired, several of which hit her. The woman was later identified as someone Ayers had been ministering to, trying to convince her to get off of drugs and turn her life around. Toccoa is about 95 miles northeast of Atlanta. WebArmed agents dressed in street clothes then rushed Ayerss car. In Denver, one such person was 45-year-old Ismael Mena, who was shot and killed by a SWAT team during a no-knock raid on September 29, 1999. But in addition to the $1.6 million, slightly more than $832,000 was awarded to the plaintiff in legal fees and expenses. The most recent, entered into court records Aug. 17, asks District Judge Richard Story to grant summary judgment, a determination made by a court without a full trial. Hall school board approves $11M for giant classroom touchscreens. Three officers, all undercover, got out of the vehicle and pointed their guns at Ayers. OnJuly 12, 1998, Houston officers raided Navarroshome based on an alleged drug users claim that drugs were being sold there. Apologists for the killing claimed that Mena (a Mexican immigrant) had a gun, and LeRoy Lemos (a community activist) responded: If police hadn't gotten the wrong house, Mena would be alive. The officers saw the woman in a car with Ayers and saw what they believed was a drug transaction, Bankhead said. Jonathan Ayers, Rodolfo Rudy Cardenas, Alberta Spruill, Mario Paz, Kathryn Johnston and others could have been prevented. In the process, he nicked one agent. The Rev. "Based upon this finding, we the Grand Jury believe that the officers involved in this incident would be immune from criminal prosecution pursuant to Official Code of Georgia Annotated 16-3-24.2.". 345 homes proposed in this area at Hall-Gwinnett County line, Man indicted in strangling death, attorney says he maintains his innocence, These Hall high schools named Honor Schools for success in AP classes, Georgia Senate seeks to allow rural hospitals without permit. These officers jumped from an SUV waving their guns commando-style over a possible $50 drug transaction. Tuccille And a Plains teen girl borrowed Jimmy Carters clothes. The woman reportedly told detectives she didn't have the amount that had been agreed upon, but she would get it later in the day. Harrison fired shots, and one struck Ayers in the abdomen. Around 6:10am on May 16, 2003, officers executed a no-knock drug raid on Spruills apartment based on bad information they had received from an informant/alleged drug dealer. "People are so ramped up and emotional," Mike Ayers of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the AJC. Rickman also cleared the cops in the Ayers case. 345 homes proposed in this area at Hall-Gwinnett County line, Man indicted in strangling death, attorney says he maintains his innocence, These Hall high schools named Honor Schools for success in AP classes, Georgia Senate seeks to allow rural hospitals without permit. When Ayers left a gas station/convenience store after using an ATM and saw three plainclothes officers pointing their guns at him, he had no idea they were cops. Holder acknowledged that too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for no truly good law enforcement reason, and he pointed out that according to one report, black males convicted in drug cases typically receive sentences that are 20% longer than the sentences imposed on white males for similar offenses. Still, local law enforcement officials tried to smear him. In a letter to Rickman, Gwinnett County District Attorney Daniel Porter said the officers had "sufficient articulable suspicion" to question Ayers and that no criminal charges were warranted. Radley Balko Undercover narcotics officers who had been trailing Barrett suspected that she was selling crack cocaine, and when Ayers gave her $23, they began trailing Ayers. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. But the conduct of three Atlanta police officers in the killing of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston was so unscrupulous that all three faced criminal charges. Grand jury to review police shooting of Georgia pastor, Probe of Georgia pastor's shooting expected to take another month, Rally planned for Georgia pastor killed in botched drug sting, Georgia Baptist pastor killed in botched drug sting. In a lawsuit filed last week, Abigail Ayers makes some astonishing new allegations about the competence of the police officers who killed her husband, the supervisors who hired them, and the law enforcement agencies and the grand jury that investigated Ayers' death. 1. He died four hours later at the local hospital of his gunshot wound. The complaint alleges that Officer Harrison, the cop who shot Ayers, wasn't even authorized to arrest him. 6. Jonathan Andrew Barley was booked Saturday night Rumors continue to feed the fire. On January 4, 2008, narcotics officer Joseph Chavalia shot and killed 26-year-old Tarika Wilson in Lima, Ohio. "They approached the vehicle. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Radley Balko is a journalist at The Washington Post. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. Ayers widow, Abby document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Judge OKs $832K in legal fees in preacher shooting case, Damages awarded to widow cut to $1.6 million, SPONSORED: How to start a hiking, backpacking habit in 2022. Woke Wars Infiltrate Christian Colleges, Prof Under Fire for Racial Justice Unit, Tyre Nichols Police Beating Video Prompts Faith Leaders to React With Grief, Goals, The Social Gospel vs. Individualism in the Georgia Runoff, Walker, Warnock Offer Clashing Religious Messages in Georgia, Black Church Tradition Survives Georgias Voting Changes. The pastor, understandably, attempted to escape. He could face up to 15 year in prison, if convicted. Neither the family or Mrs. Ayers have embraced any of this, attorney Richard Hendrix said. Rickman, Terrell, and the other sheriff who oversees the task force were all reelected. Though I know they can't all be good. Accessibility | This would have been a grossly disproportionate way for these cops to have approached Barrett, their actual suspect, much less a guy they sought to question only about the 10 minutes he'd just spent in the car with her. The officers claim Ayers reckless driving gave them reasonable cause to believe their lives were in danger and that he was trying to avoid being questioned. District Attorney Brian Rickman praised the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for going to "very extraordinary lengths" to insure the investigation into the shooting was fair. WebA Stephens County grand jury decided that narcotics officers Billy Shane Harrison and Kyle Bryant were justified in shooting Jonathan Ayers, 28, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Accelyne Williams; Boston, 1994. Last September, Ayers, a 28-year-old Baptist pastor from Lavonia, Georgia, was gunned down by a North Georgia narcotics task force in the parking lot of a gas station. Despite the fact that Harrison had killed a man suspected of no crime months earlier without having undergone lethal-force training and certification, the officer was still carrying his badge and gun up until the time of the WSBTV report. Dorothy Duckett, a 78-year-old neighbor, told the San Jose Mercury Newsthat when Cardenas was running away, he had his hands in the air and was yelling, Dont shoot.. The black-and-white video shows a dark Escalade pulling past some gas pumps and two men getting out. But with the war on drugs, the concept of innocent until proven guilty has fallen by the wayside on countless occasions. He then put the car in drive and accelerated forward, nearly striking Billy Shane Harris, an agent for the Mountain Narcotics Criminal Investigation & Suppression Team. "The vigilantes will get their justice, hopefully, in civil court. Narcotics officers who kill innocent people in the war on drugs often dont even face suspensions, let alone criminal charges. He said the official explanation of what happened "flew in the face of credulity.". The defense asked for the amount to be reduced under a specific formula; Story granted the request by decreasing it to $1.6 million, as a better estimate of the income Jonathan Ayers would have been expected to receive. Harris fired twice at the fleeing vehicle, grazing Ayers on the arm and striking him in the torso. Armed agents dressed in street clothes then rushed Ayerss car. Ayers was shot in the liver and later died in a hospital operating room. Had the narcotics officers who confronted Ayers been wearing uniforms that made them easily recognizable as cops, its possible that he would not have fled and would still be alive today. They also had badges around their necks.". , the jury decided the shooting Cardenas ; San Jose, California, 2004 grand jury presented! All undercover, got out of the bedrooms ; when Chavalia fired shots into that,. Being sold there, Kathryn Johnston was lying on the floor dying, Smith handcuffed her managing editor jonathan ayers shooting! 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