The video raises questions on how a soldier prevented fees within the black man’s loss of life
Savannah, Georgia –
Julian Lewis did not cease for a Georgia State Patrol cruiser with its blue lights flashing behind him on a rural freeway. He didn’t cease but after pointing his hand out the window and turning onto a darkish filth highway whereas the policeman sounded the siren.
5 minutes into the chase that began over a damaged taillight, the 60-year-old black man was useless — shot within the brow by a white soldier who fired a single shot simply seconds after Lewis was pressured right into a ditch. Trooper Jake Thompson insisted he pulled the set off whereas Lewis revved the engine of his Nissan Sentra and shook the steering wheel as if attempting to crush him.
“I needed to shoot this man,” Thompson could be heard telling his supervisor in a video recorded by his dashboard digicam on the scene of the taking pictures in rural Screven County, midway between Savannah and Augusta. “And I am simply afraid.”
However new investigative particulars obtained by The Related Press and beforehand unreleased dashcam video of the August 2020 taking pictures elevate new questions on how the cop prevented prosecution with nothing greater than a signed promise by no means to work in legislation enforcement once more. . Use of drive consultants who reviewed the footage informed the Related Press that the taking pictures appeared unjustified.
The investigative file obtained by the AP supplies essentially the most detailed account but of the case, together with paperwork explaining why the Georgia Bureau of Investigation concluded that the account of occasions given by the 27-year-old police officer didn’t match the proof. For instance, an examination of Lewis’ automobile indicated that the accident brought about the automobile’s battery to be disconnected and rendered motionless.
Footage of the chase was by no means launched. It was first obtained by the authors of a brand new guide on race and financial inequality titled “Fifteen Cents on the Greenback: How People Created the Wealth Hole Between Blacks and Whites.” Louise Story and Ebony Reed shared the video with the AP, which verified its authenticity and obtained extra paperwork underneath Georgia’s open information legislation.
The footage doesn’t embrace photographs of the particular taking pictures, which occurred outdoors the digicam’s view. Nevertheless it reveals the essential remaining moments through which Thompson makes use of a police maneuver to ship Lewis’ automobile right into a ditch. Then the soldier’s cruiser stopped parallel to Lewis’ automobile and Thompson’s voice barked, “Hey, fingers up!” The gunshot rang out earlier than he might end the warning.
Thompson fired simply 1.6 seconds after his cruiser stopped, paperwork present.
“This man simply got here out taking pictures” and didn’t give Lewis “remotely sufficient time to react” to his command, mentioned Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton, Fla., police chief who wrote a thesis on police pursuits.
“This goes past a silly mistake,” added Charles “Joe” Key, a former Baltimore police lieutenant and use-of-force skilled who has suggested on 1000’s of such circumstances.
Key additionally objected to the maneuver to disable Lewis’ automobile, saying that was additionally unjustified. Thompson’s declare that he fired due to the regenerative engine was thought-about “full garbage.”
“I do not assist folks working from the police,” Key mentioned. “However that does not put him within the class of people that need to be shot by police.”
Thompson was fired and arrested on homicide fees per week after the August 7, 2020, taking pictures, which got here amid a summer time of protests within the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and different Black folks. The cop was denied bail and spent greater than 100 days in jail.
However in the long run, Thompson walked free and not using a trial. A state grand jury in 2021 declined to file an indictment. The prosecutor overseeing the case closed the case final fall, when federal prosecutors additionally dominated out civil rights fees.
In the meantime, the US Division of Justice quietly entered right into a non-prosecution settlement with Thompson barring him from working in legislation enforcement once more – a extremely uncommon deal that introduced little solace to the Lewis household.
“It is inappropriate,” mentioned Brock Bacon, Lewis’ son. “I assumed the shortcomings that occurred on the state stage can be extra intently scrutinized on the federal stage, however that doesn’t look like the case.”
The state of Georgia in 2022 paid the Lewis household a $4.8 million settlement to keep away from a lawsuit.
The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of Georgia, which reached a non-prosecution settlement with Thompson, declined to debate the matter besides to say the Justice Division has reached out to the Lewis household “in line with the legislation and Division of Justice coverage.”
District Legal professional Daphne Totten didn’t reply to requests for remark. Neither Thompson nor his legal professional, Keith Barber, mentioned the case.
Since Georgia legislation doesn’t require troopers to make use of physique cameras, the dashcam footage is the one video of the taking pictures.
“It’s a heartbreaking case that highlights the complexities and difficulties that Black households face after they intersect with the justice system,” mentioned Reed, a former Related Press journalist and one of many authors who first obtained the footage.
Lewis labored odd jobs as a carpenter and handyman. He helped construct a brand new roof and siding at a neighborhood church, and repaired plumbing and electrical wiring in folks’s houses, kin mentioned. He usually charged family and friends only for the supplies.
“He was an excellent, kind-hearted particular person,” mentioned Tonya Moore, one in every of Lewis’s sisters. “Everybody has flaws.”
Lewis additionally struggled with medication and alcohol. He has served time in jail for cocaine possession and a number of DUI violations. After the taking pictures, blood checks discovered alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine in his system.
Thompson, who supervised Georgia Highways for six years earlier than the taking pictures, was described in a efficiency analysis as “hard-working and aggressive.” He led his place in DUI arrests, in keeping with his personnel file, and most well-liked to work at night time to enhance his possibilities of catching drunk drivers.
Days after the taking pictures, Thompson informed GBI investigators that he used the tactical maneuver to finish the pursuit — which he estimated reached a high pace of 65 mph (105 km/h) — out of concern that the pursuit was approaching a extra populated space. He acted instantly after Lewis’ automobile rolled with out stopping by way of an intersection with a cease signal.
Thompson mentioned that after getting out of his automobile subsequent to Lewis’ automobile within the ditch, he heard the Nissan’s engine “accelerating at a excessive fee.”
“It appeared to me that the offender was attempting to make use of his automobile to hit me,” Thompson mentioned in an audio recording of the GBI interview obtained by The Related Press. He mentioned he fired the gun “out of concern for my life and security.”
Within the sprint cam footage, a quick noise resembling a revving engine could be heard earlier than Thompson shouts a warning and fires. Lower than two minutes later, the soldier could be heard saying: “Jesus Christ!” “It virtually hit me.”
In response to the GBI case file, Thompson fired the gun going through the open driver’s facet window of Lewis’ automobile lower than 10 toes (3 meters) away.
Brokers on the scene discovered Lewis’ entrance tires pointing away from the trooper’s cruiser. Additionally they decided that Lewis’ automobile now not had energy after the Nissan crashed into the ditch. Once they lifted the hood, they found that the battery had been turned on its facet after its mounting had damaged. One of many battery cables was eliminated, and the engine air filter cowl was partially opened.
Investigators later performed a area take a look at on Lewis’ automobile the place they hooked up the battery and began the engine. When a buyer disconnected one of many cables from the battery, the automobile’s engine stopped instantly. Likewise, opening the air filter cowl brought about the engine to stall.
As a result of grand jury proceedings are usually secret, it’s unknown why the panel declined to indict Thompson in June 2021. Georgia provides legislation enforcement officers the chance to defend themselves earlier than a grand jury, a privilege not afforded to some other defendants.
Totten, the district legal professional, determined to not strive once more, saying in a September 28 letter to the FBI that “no new proof has been developed on this case.”
For Bacon, Lewis’s son, the absence of fees is an open wound. He worries that nobody will bear in mind what occurred given that almost 4 years have handed – and what number of different folks have been killed by police in questionable circumstances.
“It is laborious for anybody to come back again that far, particularly in the event that they did not hear about it to start with,” he mentioned. “However these points haven’t gone away.”
