So in other words, El Monte officers conducted a commando-style raid on the Paz home based on the fact that a drug suspect (who was out on bail and hadnt been convicted) had received some mail in their home during the previous decade. Heres when your childs school will get one. One of the most disturbing examples of "collateral damage" in the war on drugs was that of the Rev. A federal jury in Gainesville, Ga., said a reasonable officer would have realized that Ayers' 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. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Fort Bragg, N.C., before reporting to the 173rd in July 2006. WebThe incident happened about 5:15 a.m. in a home near 1600 West and Center Street. Another then opened fire, Its Legacy Is Disastrous. Harrison was ordered to post a $2.9 million bond while his attorneys appeal this most recent judgment. 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. 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. 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. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. But in addition to the $1.6 million, slightly more than $832,000 was awarded to the plaintiff in legal fees and expenses. WebA federal jury awarded more than $2.3 million Thursday afternoon to the family of a Toccoa pastor shot and killed by a sheriffs deputy. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. Want to share a story? "Tell your boss we demand justice for these murdering thugs,'" was one of the first messages left for him, Rickman said. But in the drug war, the combination of SWAT teams, no-knock raids and sloppy police work can have deadly consequences for innocent people. Ayers' last words to his family and medical staff were that he thought he was being robbed. Privacy Policy | WebShooting a commercial for emagine theater that will be played at every theater across the country before every movie they play..awesome Jump to Sections of this page According to the originally filed civil complaint, Harrison later claimed he shot the victim because, at the time, he thought The police were trailing Barrett at the time. Terms Of Use, praised the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. At the heart of this outrage, though, once again, is our increasingly demented, hysterical, all-too-literal drug war. Before he died, he was able to speak to his wife But with the war on drugs, the concept of innocent until proven guilty has fallen by the wayside on countless occasions. Jonathan Ayers, pastor at Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Georgia, died after the incident Tuesday afternoon in the nearby town of Toccoa, Georgia, police said. The badges they had hanging from their necks, seen in this photo, were far from conspicuous. Stephens County District Attorney Brian Rickman and Assistant District Attorney Rick Bridgeman presented the case. So did the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Ayers continued to drive, fleeing the parking lot for about a thousand yards before eventually crashing his car. She also received Wilson, a single mother, had been romantically involved with a suspected drug dealer named Anthony Terry (who later pled guilty to selling drugs). 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. "They approached the vehicle. No one was disciplined for the actual killing of Ayers. Ayers, attempting to leave the scene, was shot by Harrison. But in the case of 57-year-old Harlem resident Alberta Spruill, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg admitted: Clearly, the police made a mistake.. GAINESVILLE, Ga. (ABP) Two north Georgia police officers have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against them for their use of deadly force in a 2009 shooting that claimed the life of a Baptist pastor. Heres the blurry video from the Convenience store showing officers shooting at him as he drives away. Harrison fired shots, and one struck Ayers in the abdomen. In a split second, Ayers car is seen backing up and striking Oxner, and Harrison shoots. Still, local law enforcement officials tried to smear him. 3. The grand jury heard testimony from several members of the Mountain Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team and had the chance to question the witnesses, including Harrison. 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. Neither the family or Mrs. Ayers have embraced any of this, attorney Richard Hendrix said. Published: Jul. Rumors continue to feed the fire. The officer that was struck by the car was treated and released at a local hospital. Roland Stroberg, the attorney representing Ayers widow, said the family was "extremely disappointed," and that a lawsuit would be forthcoming. 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. The woman who was in the car with Ayers was taken into custody and faces drug charges, Bankhead said. WebIn 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. Back in the 1980s, Beltrn had lived next door to the Paz familyand at one point, they agreed to let Beltrn receive mail in their home. 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. In the end, the jury decided the shooting was justified. He wasnt authorized to make arrests or to carry a gun. Ayers was 29. Police would later acknowledge he was not using or trafficking in illicit drugs. 1, 2019 at 5:28 PM EDT. Stroberg has been critical of how the case was presented to the grand jury. Parlez-en ! 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. Other members . WebArmed agents dressed in street clothes then rushed Ayerss car. The black-and-white video shows a dark Escalade pulling past some gas pumps and two men getting out. By the time Billy Shane Harrison received the Christmas card depicting Hell, he was numb to the damnation he had endured since he pulled the trigger and killed a fleeing man on Sept. 1. Although Paz was a gun owner, he never shot at the officershe didnt live long enough. 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? Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. Franklin said in an interview with the AJC. Claytor said the fact that Harrison shot as Ayers was clearly driving away also gnaws at many. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is looking into the shooting. "You may escape justice in this life but you will never escape the final judgment and eternal damnation for your actions! OnJuly 12, 1998, Houston officers raided Navarroshome based on an alleged drug users claim that drugs were being sold there. Below are 10 innocent victims who became collateral damage and lost their lives in the war on drugs (there are many, many more). The same Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team involved in the death of Jonathan Ayers did conduct the alleged drug buy and investigation before last weeks raid. WebJonathan Paul Ayers, a pastor at the small Shoal Creek Baptist Church, was shot outside a Toccoa convenience store by plainclothes drug agents on Sept. 1. Rodolfo Rudy Cardenas; San Jose, California, 2004. Jonathan Ayers, a 28-year-old Baptist minister from northern Georgia. "The unfortunate thing for me is people who claim to be forgiven by God are unwilling to forgive others," Franklin said. 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. WebLooking for Jonathan Ayers online? In a democratic republic, the innocent until proven guilty concept is supposed to be sacrosanct.Jurors, police officers, judges and prosecuting attorneysat least in theoryare required to err on the side of caution, and if a guilty person occasionally goes free, so be it. The grand jury also heard from Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter and former Stephens County District Attorney Mike Crawford. After causing Spruills death, the officers realized that they had just killed an innocent person. 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. A man shot another family member, an adult, whom he mistakenly believed was a burglar, No drugs were found in her house. 3.23.2010 7:00 AM. In her September interview with the North Georgian, Barrett told the paper that Ayers had been trying to help kick her drug habit, but later, while facing charges related to both the Ayers case and another incident, she told investigators that Ayers had in previous years paid her for sex. Rickman also cleared the cops in the Ayers case. He was taken a local hospital, went into surgery and died an hour later. Jonathan Ayers; Toccoa, Georgia, 2009. Webofficial athlete of dream different sports and life & basketball brand Report this post Shooting Your email address will not be published. "They will suffer the consequences.". The 18-person grand jury was provided with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations case file on the shooting, which contained more than 1,000 pages, as well as 26 compact discs of interviews, photos and 911 recordings. A grand jury on Friday found that an officer-involved shooting in which a Lavonia minister was killed was justified. 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. 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. Your email address will not be published. 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. A Stephens County grand jury began hearing evidence in the case Tuesday and issued a finding Friday afternoon. An 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 Church in Lavonia, Ga., was justified in using lethal force because he reasonably believed he was in physical danger. He asked emergency personnel if he was going to make it and told his wife at the hospital to take care of herself and that he did nothing wrong. For three days in December, a grand jury was presented with the interviews and watched the video. "The video seemed to be the main catalyst for a lot of anger," Rickman said. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. The decision to raid the Paz home, according to Ankeny, was made after narcotics officers found some bills and Department of Motor Vehicle records containing the familys address among the possessions of a drug suspect named Marcos Beltrn. 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. "The community reaction has been mostly negative," said the Rev. Shortly after he got back into his car, a black Escalade tore into the parking lot. Shes the widow of Jonathan Ayers, a Northeast Georgia pastor fatally shot by then-Stephens County Deputy Billy Shane Harrison in September 2009. Those were bad. ", The incident was caught on the gas station's surveillance camera. Wilson, however, was in one of the bedrooms; when Chavalia fired shots into that bedroom, she was killed. Annie Rae Dixon, an 84-year-old African-American woman, was killed by a narcotics officer in Tyler, Texas on January 29, 1992. These officers jumped from an SUV waving their guns commando-style over a possible $50 drug transaction. 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. "The subject kept going and drove off," Bankhead said. 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Accelyne Williams; Boston, 1994. "I think I would try to run over them or get away the best way I could.". An investigation revealed that after Johnstons death, a major coverup was attempted, including planting bags of marijuana in her house and trying to bully White into lying and saying that Johnston was selling crack cocaine. Narcotics officer Frank Baggett, Jr. said that when he kicked down the door to Dixons bedroom, he stumbledwhich caused his gun to go off and sent a bullet into Dixons chest. Barley didnt speak during the brief arraignment hearing. But the kicker has to be that the subsequent police-led investigations of this high-profile case failed to turn up such a critical piece of information. Rickman, Terrell, and the other sheriff who oversees the task force were all reelected. On January 4, 2008, narcotics officer Joseph Chavalia shot and killed 26-year-old Tarika Wilson in Lima, Ohio. These are some of the best places to take them in Hall County, Best breakfast in Hall County? Abigail Ayerss lawsuit also alleged that Harrison and Officer Chance Oxner, who initially bought the drugs from the woman Ayers was counseling, had a history of disciplinary problems, including use of illicit drugs. So maybe we should take Rickmans quick assessment of this weeks raid with a grain of salt. He said the official explanation of what happened "flew in the face of credulity.". U.S. District Judge Richard Story also decreased the initial amount awarded in damages and expenses. After GeorgiasMountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team burned a toddler with a flashbang grenade during a drug raid on Wednesday, Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell told Access North Georgia: Of course, Terrells task force didnt even know there was a child in the home. "People are so ramped up and emotional," Mike Ayers of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the AJC. Chavalia later said he thought shots were coming from that bedroom, but the fact that he killed an unarmed woman holding a baby was inexcusable, especially in light of the fact that Wilson, according to her sister Tania Wilson, was not involved in drug sales herself. The wasteful use of public resources to pursue a petty drug offender and the aggressive and short-sighted apprehension of Jonathan Ayers that led to his death are bad enough. 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 . 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