On one side are those who believe the district attorney, the Stephens County sheriff, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, area law enforcement and the grand jury were corrupted because they were determined to protect one of their own. They first said he was part of their drug investigation all along, then retracted. Hall school board approves $11M for giant classroom touchscreens. Based on that finding, jurors said officers involved in the incident "would be immune from criminal prosecution" under Georgia law. "Tell your boss we demand justice for these murdering thugs,'" was one of the first messages left for him, Rickman said. WebAfter Ayers tried to drive past the descending officers, Harrison shot and killed him. Terms Of Use, praised the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. "The video seemed to be the main catalyst for a lot of anger," Rickman said. 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. Another then opened fire, killing him. (She had allegedly sold an undercover officer $50 worth of cocaine.) Though I know they can't all be good. ", The incident was caught on the gas station's surveillance camera. Some of the officers claimed that Paz appeared to be going for a gun, and they fatally shot him twice in the back in front of his wife. Yards down the street, Ayers car jumped a curb and hit a tree. Jonathan Ayers; Toccoa, Georgia, 2009. The headline of this post has been changed to reflect the distinction.). Rodolfo Rudy Cardenas; San Jose, California, 2004. | It was later revealed that Rickman had appointed the head of the task force at the time of the Ayers shooting, and was a close personal friend with the officer (who is now deceased). According to a 1,100-page Georgia Bureau of Investigation report made public after the Dec. 15-18 grand jury probe, undercover officers were in the process of purchasing crack cocaine from a known drug user in hopes of identifying her supplier. Harris fired twice at the fleeing vehicle, grazing Ayers on the arm and striking him in the torso. Shortly after he got back into his car, a black Escalade tore into the parking lot. Drug Team involved in the September 2009 incident at a Toccoa gas station in which the Rev. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report. Individuals arrested and charged in complaints are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court. Defense attorney Shannon Demler said his client was trying to protect himself. And not too many cases were it's obvious the shooting was bad or even unnecessary. They also had badges around their necks.". Associated Press articles: Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. This article was published more than8 years ago, (CORRECTION: The copy below is slightly incorrect. Vous avez des problmes de TNT ? Sheriff's Employee Embezzled Funds in Keeping with the Spirit of Civil Asset Forfeiture, The Jones Act Is Driving Up Prices and Making Crises Worse, How SCOTUS Promoted Pernicious Myths About Sex Offender Registries. Mike Ayers, who was in charge of the investigation for the GBI, is not related to Jonathan Ayers. 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. 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. Watch surveillance video of Ayers' car hitting officer , Authorities say Jonathan Ayers was in car with drug suspect, When police approached car, they claim Ayers struck officer with vehicle, Another officer shot Ayers; both officers placed on paid administrative leave, Nothing illegal found in Ayers' vehicle, authorities say. He shot the 28-year-old Ayers in the parking lot of a Toccoa convenience store when the victim accidentally walked into an undercover drug investigation. In September 2009, the Ayers' sister did not return a call from CNN Thursday. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. One of the people he had been helping was a woman who had a history of problems. Here's some tips, Column: Cherish your memories while you have them, Column: The journey to Athens used to be a five-hour railcar ride, Column: Buttering up guests with fresh biscuits, Local practice offers expert medical care, GoToHearing provides professional, caring service, Have guests in town? But this same task force has a history. The officers saw Cardenas and assumed he was David Gonzales, the man they were looking forand when they pointed their guns at Cardenas, he fled (first in a vehicle, then on foot) but was shot in the back and killed. | The officers were undercover, dressed in shabby clothes and ski-mask caps. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is looking into the shooting. Had war on drugs supporters learned a lesson from Navarros death, it is quite possible that the killings of the Rev. Wilson, however, was in one of the bedrooms; when Chavalia fired shots into that bedroom, she was killed. Bob Claytor, pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Toccoa. He shouldn't have been killed," Turpin told the AJC. So maybe we should take Rickmans quick assessment of this weeks raid with a grain of salt. 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. In fact, the 75-year-old minister was a substance abuse counselor in Boston and had a long history of doing good work in that citys African-American community. Hours before Ayers was killed, police say Johanna Barrett sold undercover officer Chance Oxner $50 worth of crack cocaine. WebArmed agents dressed in street clothes then rushed Ayerss car. Its also a bit much to call Thonetheva a terrorist shortly after his own officers have just burned a baby. 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. The pastor, understandably, attempted to escape. She also received In 1999, Al Robison (president of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas), denounced the killing of Navarro as a very clear illustration of the insanity of our current drug policy. The officers who raided Navarros home violated department policy by failing to obtain a search warrant. So did the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The complaint alleges that Officer Harrison, the cop who shot Ayers, wasn't even authorized to arrest him. The case reads the defendant is effectively insolvent even before any judgment, and a judgment over $1 million plainly will render him insolvent., As (the) plaintiff points out, she suffered her loss nearly five years ago and has been in litigation over four years, the case reads. LOGAN A 29-year-old Ogden man has been arrested for allegedly shooting at a group of teenagers in Providence Canyon. Garcia had been in the Army since October 2002. Though Ayers widow announced this week that she would file a federal lawsuit over her husband's death, her attorney said she is not a part of the backlash campaign against the investigation. 3.1.2023 7:00 AM, Charles Oliver But with the war on drugs, the concept of innocent until proven guilty has fallen by the wayside on countless occasions. I knew then that no matter what the investigation showed, it was going to be a terrible situation, said Brian Rickman, the district attorney for the Mountain Judicial Circuit, which includes Stephens and two other counties. They are no better than a domestic terrorist, because they dont care about families they didnt care about the family, the children living in that household to be selling dope out of it, to be selling methamphetamine out of it. 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. Ayers likely had his windows up and his air conditioning on. Tuccille Judge Angela Fonnesbeck set bail for Barley at $5,000 and ordered him to appear again in court Wednesday morning. One of the people he had been helping was a woman who had a history of problems. Find Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok profiles, images and more on IDCrawl - free people search website. The family of Jonathan Ayers has also filed a lawsuit against the police agency that killed him. According to the originally filed civil complaint, Harrison later claimed he shot the victim because, at the time, he thought A total of 30 bullets were fired, and Navarro was shot 12 times. 8. Harrison and Oxner told investigators they saw a woman, Kayla Barrett, whom they planned to arrest later that day on drug charges get into Ayers' car and they saw him give her money. TOCCOA, Ga. (ABP) A grand jury has cleared police officers involved in a Sept. 1 shooting that killed a Southern Baptist pastor caught in the middle of a botched drug sting. In hostage situations, for example, a SWAT team can save lives. The Stephens County, Georgia Sheriff's Department initially said Ayers was a drug suspect, but later had to retract. Enter your email below to start! 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. 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.. In February, I posted about a settlement in the death of Jonathan Ayers, an innocent pastor that this same drug task force killed in a drug operation in 2009. Ayers widow, Abby Learn how your comment data is processed. Local law enforcement knew sorting out the shooting would be difficult. Heres when your childs school will get one. 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. Rickman told the AJC that calls to his office started the day after the shooting. Jonathan Ayers had taken money out of an ATM in the convenience store and was beginning to pull out of the parking lot when Harrison, along with other deputies dressed in plainclothes, according to court documents, approached him. Ayers was shot After reviewing the GBI report and interviewing six witnesses five police officers and one expert in police use of force the grand jury ruled Harris' use of lethal force "legally justifiable based upon his objectively reasonable belief that such use of force was necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or others." Some say Ayers was obviously frightened by two men running to his car and he did not know they were police, though witnesses told the grand jury they heard Harrison and Oxner identify themselves. Not surprisingly, no drugs were found in either Ayers vehicle or on his dead body, although one of the officers claimed that before the killing, Barrett had sold him $50 worth of crack cocaine. Police later said that was not true. Ayers gave her the $23 in his pocket to help cover her rent. This article originally appeared on Alternet. But the task force also serves two other counties, and so is also overseen by the sheriffs of those counties. Best Match Powered by Whitepages Premium AGE 50s Jonathan Troy Ayers Glen Burnie, MD Aliases Jonathan Troy Ayres View Full Report Addresses Woodside Ter, Glen Burnie, MD Web0:15. Perhaps we shouldnt be all that surprised that a sheriff who sees drug suspects as terrorists also oversees a drug task force that has now killed an innocent pastor and burned a two-year-old child. Posthumously, Navarro was proven innocent, and his senseless death underscored the need for the United States to seriously reform its misguided drug laws. (You can watch surveillance video of the altercation here.) His wife was expecting their first child. According to Bankhead, Ayers then put the car into drive, and another officer fired into the car, hitting Ayers, because he thought his life was in danger. 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. Let's say that you (which would include 99 percent of the people reading this) aren't a drug dealer, or a mobster, or some other sort of career criminal. The grand jury hearing was the most one-sided miscarriage of justice that I have ever heard of. 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. WebAn 18-member grand jury in Stephens County in northeast Georgia ruled that the officer who fired two shots that fatally wounded Jonathan Ayers, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist But critics say that is when Harrison pulled his gun. Family members said he asked who shot him and said he had done nothing wrong. 5. Heres the blurry video from the Convenience store showing officers shooting at him as he drives away. The shooting in a convenience store parking lot, captured on video by a surveillance camera, has been the subject of an unrelenting debate that has, at times, been ugly in this northeast Georgia town of 9,000. An undercover drug task force team had set up an operation at a local business, and had a woman under surveillance -- someone they had bought drugs from on two previous occasions, GBI spokesman John Bankhead told CNN Thursday. Cardenas, clearly, found himself in the same position as Ayers: he was violently confronted by police officers he didnt know were police; he ran for his life and was shot dead. Ayers crashed his car, was taken to a hospital and died hours later in surgery. Pedro Oregon Navarro; Houston, Texas, 1998. Jonathan Ayers, Rodolfo Rudy Cardenas, Alberta Spruill, Mario Paz, Kathryn Johnston and others could have been prevented. And all three of them pled guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to violate her civil rights. He says he and his wife have been followed, even down the mile-long dirt road to their house. 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. "The unfortunate thing for me is people who claim to be forgiven by God are unwilling to forgive others," Franklin said. They were in plain clothes. U.S. District Judge Richard Story also decreased the initial amount awarded in damages and expenses. More astonishing, Harrison apparently had no training at all in the use of lethal force. At an inquest, a predominantly white jury decided that the shooting was accidental and that Baggett should not be charged with anything. 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. ", UGA star Jalen Carter present at scene of fatal crash, Kemp administration deals blow to Buckhead cityhood push, OPINION: The latest crime in Buckhead is the City of Buckhead City, Former Atlanta fire chief says God brought slaves to America to save them, Georgia Tech hammers Syracuse as Jackets late-season surge continues, Atlantas stitch transit project wins $1.1 million federal grant, Atlanta Mayor Dickens building task force for input on training center, Derailment disaster a window on American reality of accepting risks, Timber frame office building at Ponce City Market Atlanta starts to rise, Supreme Court hearing on student loan forgiveness: What it means for Georgians. 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