The war on drugs is not only fought aggressively, it is fought carelessly and haphazardly, and a long list of innocent victims have been killed or maimed in the process. Franklin said in an interview with the AJC. According to the originally filed civil complaint, Harrison later claimed he shot the victim because, at the time, he thought Ayers had killed one of his partners in the parking lot. By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism. In the process, he nicked one agent. These officers jumped from an SUV waving their guns commando-style over a possible $50 drug transaction. A jury awarded Abigail Ayers $2.3 million, but a judge reduced the amount to $1.64 million after reassessing lost wages. No drugs and nothing else illegal was found in Ayers' car, Bankhead said, "even though what occurred would make any undercover officer working drugs think that was a possibility. By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism. 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. He put his car in reverse and attempted to escape. 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. For example, Claytor said, the first media reports said Ayers was involved in the drug trade. An unmarked Escalade pulls up and three men jump out in masks and guns. "Tell your boss we demand justice for these murdering thugs,'" was one of the first messages left for him, Rickman said. "People are so ramped up and emotional," Mike Ayers of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the AJC. According to Joe Key, an expert on police shootings, the time between the car hitting Oxner and Harrison pulling the trigger was a quarter of a second. "Dear Billy Shane," was written inside the card. Shortly after he got back into his car, a black Escalade tore into the parking lot. Stan Turpin of Clarksville, about 15 miles from Toccoa, is another outspoken critic of the investigation. Heres the blurry video from the Convenience store showing officers shooting at him as he drives away. He was taken a local hospital, went into surgery and died an hour later. And he continues to get anonymous messages, including the Christmas card depicting Hell. Instead, Ayers had either been ministering to or having an affair with (depending on whom you believe) Johanna Kayla Jones Barrett, the actual target of the investigation. In the end, the jury decided the shooting was justified. This testimony persuaded the grand jury not to indict the officers who killed Ayers. WebWhen 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 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. WebThe incident happened about 5:15 a.m. in a home near 1600 West and Center Street. 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. 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. 5. | Associated Press articles: Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. Friends said Ayers had been ministering to the woman trying to convince her to get off drugs. Wilsons one-year-old child was also shot but survived, although one of his fingers needed to be amputated. 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. One of the people he had been helping was a woman who had a history of problems. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. 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They first said he was part of their drug investigation all along, then retracted. 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. SWAT teams can serve a valuable function in law enforcement. On the other side are those who say Harrison and fellow deputy Chance Oxner did the best they could with the information they had when they tried to stop Ayers from driving away. The pastor may have fled the police, the grand jury concluded, because he feared his reputation would be ruined if his relationship with Barrett were exposed. 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. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. Narcotics officers who kill innocent people in the war on drugs often dont even face suspensions, let alone criminal charges. According to a report of the proceedings on Rickman's website, the Stephens County district attorney, whose office overseas the drug task force, explained to grand jurors his consideration of legal and ethical obligations to remain the chief prosecuting officer in the case, including consultation with members of Ayers' family. Required fields are marked *. Barley didnt speak during the brief arraignment hearing. | You've just returned to your car after getting cash from an ATM. Rodolfo Rudy Cardenas; San Jose, California, 2004. Hours before Ayers was killed, police say Johanna Barrett sold undercover officer Chance Oxner $50 worth of crack cocaine. Family members said he asked who shot him and said he had done nothing wrong. Before he died, he was able to speak to his wife 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. Harrison said he initially thought his partner was seriously injured or dead and he thought the car was going to hit him, too. So maybe we should take Rickmans quick assessment of this weeks raid with a grain of salt. In a democratic republic, civilians are not executed in paramilitary-like raids based on guilt by association. 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 Hall school board approves $11M for giant classroom touchscreens. He put his car in reverse and attempted to escape. 8. Jonathan Ayers, Rodolfo Rudy Cardenas, Alberta Spruill, Mario Paz, Kathryn Johnston and others could have been prevented. Spotting the vehicle parked outside a gas station and recognizing Ayers as the man they had seen earlier, officers rushed to question him, blocking him in as he started to back out of a parking space. But this same task force has a history. Ayers, who obviously thought they were gang members or carjackers, tried to escape but was shot and killed. Kathryn Johnston; Atlanta, Georgia, 2006. He could face up to 15 year in prison, if convicted. Rickman said as far as he is concerned the criminal matter is closed. After causing Spruills death, the officers realized that they had just killed an innocent person. Published: Jul. "Concerning the actions of the officers involved in the death of Jonathan Ayers on Sept. 1, 2009, we find that the use of deadly force by Agent Billy Shane Harrison was legally justified based upon his objectively reasonable belief that such use of force was necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or others," a statement signed by the grand jurors read. 3.1.2023 8:00 AM, J.D. Garcia had been in the Army since October 2002. Accelyne Williams; Boston, 1994. WebThe Usos (nascidos em 22 de agosto de 1985) uma dupla de luta livre profissional formada pelo irmos gmeos Joshua Samuel Fatu e Jonathan Solofa Fatu, mais conhecidos por seus nomes de ringue Jey Uso e Jimmy Uso, respectivamente.Ambos trabalham na WWE, onde atuam na marca SmackDown e so os atuais Campees Indiscutveis de At the heart of this outrage, though, once again, is our increasingly demented, hysterical, all-too-literal drug war. 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. On January 4, 2008, narcotics officer Joseph Chavalia shot and killed 26-year-old Tarika Wilson in Lima, Ohio. Ayers is yet more collateral damage in the boundlessly tragic and wasteful drug war, as are his widowed wife Abigail and the child she was carrying at the time of his death. (WVUE/Raycom) NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A man that was killed in the document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Radley Balko is a journalist at The Washington Post. Ayers left behind a wife, Abigail, who at the time of his death was pregnant with her first child. 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. 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