That substance abuser was a police informant who gave Boston narcotics officers the address of an alleged drug dealer who lived in the same building as Williams, but a SWAT team raided the wrong apartmentWilliams apartmentand after being violently shoved onto the ground and handcuffed, the minister began to vomit. Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. A federal judge has awarded more than $800,000 in legal fees to the Hall County widow of a pastor fatally shot by law enforcement. 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. The complaint alleges that Officer Harrison, the cop who shot Ayers, wasn't even authorized to arrest him. Heres the blurry video from the Convenience store showing officers shooting at him as he drives away. 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. Family members said he asked who shot him and said he had done nothing wrong. They say Ayers backed his car into one agent and another fired at him as he maneuvered his car in a threatening manner. Ayers maintained a blog, in which he wrote that he had three loves in life: "Jesus Christ, my wife Abby, and the Church.". Ayers was shot Enter your email below to start! Some contend Ayers was running because he didn't want the police to expose a secret part of his life: Barrett told investigators that she and Ayers had been having an affair for years. Toccoa is about 95 miles northeast of Atlanta. The Stephens County, Georgia Sheriff's Department initially said Ayers was a drug suspect, but later had to retract. Authorities say they found nothing illegal in Jonathan Ayers' car after he was slain during a drug sting. 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. 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. It was WWII. We hope you will! The law cited by the grand jury states in part that a person who uses threats or force in defense of self or others is immune from criminal prosecution. Officer Billy Shane Harrison then opened fire, shooting Ayers in the stomach. You've just returned to your car after getting cash from an ATM. The badges they had hanging from their necks, seen in this photo, were far from conspicuous. Previous story (with links to earlier coverage), Widow files lawsuit in police shooting of slain Baptist pastor, Review: Second Thoughts About the Second Coming, West Virginia GOP Majority House OKs Religious Freedom Bill, 30 Years Later, Waco Siege Still Resonates Especially Among Anti-Government Extremists. As he pulled out of the station, Ayers grazed Officer Oxner with his car. LOGAN A 29-year-old Ogden man has been arrested for allegedly shooting at a group of teenagers in Providence Canyon. At an inquest, a predominantly white jury decided that the shooting was accidental and that Baggett should not be charged with anything. | Stephens County sheriff Randy Shirley has placed both officers involved in the incident on paid administrative leave, he said. Ayers put the car in reverse and backed up, striking an officer, Bankhead said. I can't get into that, but that's what we're looking at.". Police later said that was not true. One such victim was 22-year-old Pedro Oregon Navarro. 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. 3.1.2023 4:00 AM, John Stossel 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.. Ayers was shot in the liver and later died in a hospital operating room. 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. Ayers widow, Abby A similar tragedy occurred in San Jose, Calif. on February 17, 2004, when plainclothes officers were attempting to serve a warrant for a drug-related parole violation and 43-year-old Rodolfo Cardenas, a father of five, had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 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. Police would later acknowledge he was not using or trafficking in illicit drugs. CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report. Your email address will not be published. Parlez-en ! 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. (You can watch surveillance video of the altercation here.) ------------------------------------------. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. | One of the people he had been helping was a woman who had a history of problems. On January 4, 2008, narcotics officer Joseph Chavalia shot and killed 26-year-old Tarika Wilson in Lima, Ohio. 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. He died at the hospital. Ayers, who obviously thought they were gang members or carjackers, tried to escape but was shot and killed. All rights reserved. Smith and Junnier both pled guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter; Smith also pled guilty to perjury and admitted he planted the marijuana in Johnstons house. Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press. 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. The GBI was called in. In many cases, politicians (both Democrats and Republicans) are so afraid of being considered soft on drugs that they are reluctant to say anything critical of narcotics officers no matter how badly they screw up. 3.23.2010 7:00 AM. One of the people he had been helping was a woman who had a history of problems. A concussion grenade was thrown into the apartment; Spruill, a city employee who was getting ready to leave for work, suffered a heart attack and died. "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.". 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. AlthoughChavalia was acquitted of criminal charges, Wilsons family was awarded $2.5 million in 2010 in a civil lawsuit against the city of Lima. Ayers crashed his car, was taken to a hospital and died hours later in surgery. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Ayers, who had known Barrett for a number of years, offered her a ride back to the motel and gave her the money in his pocket, $23, to help pay her rent. The grand jury hearing was the most one-sided miscarriage of justice that I have ever heard of. She prohibited him from possessing weapons or consuming alcohol if released from jail. An unmarked Escalade pulls up and three men jump out in masks and guns. But the task force also serves two other counties, and so is also overseen by the sheriffs of those counties. 10. Jonathan Ayers, Rodolfo Rudy Cardenas, Alberta Spruill, Mario Paz, Kathryn Johnston and others could have been prevented. 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. Harris fired twice at the fleeing vehicle, grazing Ayers on the arm and striking him in the torso. Ayers continued to drive, fleeing the parking lot for about a thousand yards before eventually crashing his car. Ayers likely had his windows up and his air conditioning on. If the story ended there, it would merely be enough to boil your blood. "The subject kept going and drove off," Bankhead said. "We are in the process of gathering all the facts surrounding this terrible incident," Stroberg said. 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. Barley was arraigned virtually before a judge in 1st District Court, appearing by web conference from jail Monday afternoon. On November 21, 2006, plainclothes officers Jason R. Smith, Gregg Junnier and Arthur Tesler carried out a no-knock drug raid on Johnstons Atlanta home based on bad information from an informant/marijuana dealer named Alex White. WebLOGAN A 29-year-old Ogden man has been arrested for allegedly shooting at a group of teenagers in Providence Canyon. 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. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. Abigail Ayers then filed a civil lawsuit in March 2010, alleging gross and plain incompetence in the use of deadly force. Below are 10 innocent victims who became collateral damage and lost their lives in the war on drugs (there are many, many more). Wilson, however, was in one of the bedrooms; when Chavalia fired shots into that bedroom, she was killed. They also had badges around their necks.". One of the most disturbing examples of "collateral damage" in the war on drugs was that of the Rev. The Department of Homeland Security Turns 20. 5. Yards down the street, Ayers car jumped a curb and hit a tree. 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.
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