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. 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. Police said three drug agents tried to block Ayers car after he dropped off a woman known to have been involved in illegal drug transactions. He suggested allowing a grand jury to investigate further about possible policy violations or civil liability. And he continues to get anonymous messages, including the Christmas card depicting Hell. Wilsons one-year-old child was also shot but survived, although one of his fingers needed to be amputated. Want to share a story? Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. Those were bad. 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. The surveillance video was on the Internet within a day of the shooting, fueling speculation and half-accounts that were repeated online and in letters to area newspapers. | WebCNN video shows Pastor Jonathan Ayers' final moments. The Narks are murderers for shooting an innocent preacher, You trying to justify it only shows how weak some Georgia citizens are. Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press. But with the war on drugs, the concept of innocent until proven guilty has fallen by the wayside on countless occasions. A cafeteria-style restaurant leads this list of 12 popular spots, SPONSORED: See the Great Smoky Mountains in style. One of the people he had been helping was a woman who had a history of problems. The task force followed Ayers to a convenience store, where he went in to get money from an ATM. Learn how your comment data is processed. Claytor said the fact that Harrison shot as Ayers was clearly driving away also gnaws at many. 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.. Jonathan Ayers was a pastor at the Shoal Creek Baptist Church. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. He wasnt authorized to make arrests or to carry a gun. Barley was arraigned virtually before a judge in 1st District Court, appearing by web conference from jail Monday afternoon. Harrison was ordered to post a $2.9 million bond while his attorneys appeal this most recent judgment. Abigail Ayers then filed a civil lawsuit in March 2010, alleging gross and plain incompetence in the use of deadly force. Web0:15. 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. 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.. In the end, Ayers was innocent, and a federal jury awarded his widow a $2 million settlement. When Ayers left a gas station/convenience store after using an ATM and saw three plainclothes officers pointing their guns at him, he had no idea they were cops. 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. But in addition to the $1.6 million, slightly more than $832,000 was awarded to the plaintiff in legal fees and expenses. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Radley Balko is a journalist at The Washington Post. Police would later acknowledge he was not using or trafficking in illicit drugs. The suit has since meandered through a series of 208 motions, depositions and other court filings. 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. "If an unmarked Escalade truck pulled up where I was and two guys dressed like drug dealers jumped out with guns drawn and approached me, I don't think I would wait around one second to find out who they were or what their motives were," one person wrote in a letter to the Toccoa Record. The Rev. "The vigilantes will get their justice, hopefully, in civil court. 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. 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. Other members . He put his car in reverse and attempted to escape. 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. | 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. Judge Angela Fonnesbeck set bail for Barley at $5,000 and ordered him to appear again in court Wednesday morning. The officers were undercover, dressed in shabby clothes and ski-mask caps. Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. They followed him to a gas station where he stopped to withdraw money from an ATM machine. "I think I would try to run over them or get away the best way I could.". A jury awarded Abigail Ayers $2.3 million, but a judge reduced the amount to $1.64 million after reassessing lost wages. WebAfter Ayers tried to drive past the descending officers, Harrison shot and killed him. Webofficial athlete of dream different sports and life & basketball brand Report this post Shooting ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A north Georgia pastor was shot to death by police when he struck an officer with his car after he was seen in a vehicle with a drug suspect, authorities told CNN. 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. Copyright 2010 - 2023 CacheValleyDaily.com LLC, all rights reserved. By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism. Local citizens held several vigils calling for a complete investigation into the police shooting. Mike Franklin with The Torch, the Church of God located in Demorest, Ga., knows Harrison and Oxner and also knew Ayers. 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. 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. Published: Jul. But the task force also serves two other counties, and so is also overseen by the sheriffs of those counties. Police would later acknowledge he was not using or trafficking in illicit drugs. Rickman said as far as he is concerned the criminal matter is closed. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. When they approached to question him, Ayers reportedly tried to flee and his car struck one of the officers. 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. 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. As he pulled out of the station, Ayers grazed Officer Oxner with his car. Before he died, he was able to speak to his wife "And later he ran off the road. Grand jury to review police shooting of Georgia pastor, Probe of Georgia pastor's shooting expected to take another month, Rally planned for Georgia pastor killed in botched drug sting, Georgia Baptist pastor killed in botched drug sting. A cafeteria-style restaurant leads this list of 12 popular spots, SPONSORED: See the Great Smoky Mountains in style. The defense asked for the amount to be reduced under a specific formula; Story granted the request by decreasing it to $1.6 million, as a better estimate of the income Jonathan Ayers would have been expected to receive. According to the originally filed civil complaint, Harrison later claimed he shot the victim because, at the time, he thought The leader of veterinary diagnostics company IDEXX is out of commission because of a serious bicycle crash. The grand jury also heard from Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter and former Stephens County District Attorney Mike Crawford. So its hard to argue they cared much either, at least not enough to let the kids safety trump the safety of the officers, or the need to get into the home quickly to prevent any evidence from being destroyed so they can preserve their conviction. Officers said they were in plain clothes but wore badges around their necks and identified themselves as police. Confusion and self-preservation is not only understandable, it ought to be predictable, even expected. Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press. | Rickman, Terrell, and the other sheriff who oversees the task force were all reelected. WebJonathan Ayers of Hart County, age 28, died Tuesday night at Stephens County Hospital after being treated for a gunshot wound received during an incident at a convenience (She had allegedly sold an undercover officer $50 worth of cocaine.) Narcotics officers who kill innocent people in the war on drugs often dont even face suspensions, let alone criminal charges. You've just returned to your car after getting cash from an ATM. 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 1, 2019 at 5:28 PM EDT. 2023 Baptist News Global. Undercover narcotics officers who had been trailing Barrett suspected that she was selling crack cocaine, and when Ayers gave her $23, they began trailing Ayers. They were in plain clothes. Lgende: Administrateurs, Les Brigades du Tigre, Les retraits de la Brigade, 726791 message(s) 35337 sujet(s) 30093 membre(s) Lutilisateur enregistr le plus rcent est jocer, Quand on a un tlviseur avec TNT intgre, Quand on a un tlviseur et un adaptateur TNT, Technique et technologie de la tlvision par cble, Rglement du forum et conseils d'utilisation. 3.23.2010 7:00 AM. But that's really only the beginning of this mess. Jonathan Andrew Barley was booked Saturday night The woman the police were following. The most recent, entered into court records Aug. 17, asks District Judge Richard Story to grant summary judgment, a determination made by a court without a full trial. The Rev. "Tell your boss we demand justice for these murdering thugs,'" was one of the first messages left for him, Rickman said. Jonathan 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. District Attorney Brian Rickman praised the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for going to "very extraordinary lengths" to insure the investigation into the shooting was fair. Friends said Ayers had been ministering to the woman trying to convince her to get off drugs. Pedro Oregon Navarro; Houston, Texas, 1998. He died at the hospital. 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. For three days in December, a grand jury was presented with the interviews and watched the video. 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. They ordered him not to put the car in reverse, but Ayers did so anyway and accelerated, making contact with an officer behind the car. But Ayers had no way of knowing he wasnt being attacked by carjackers or gang members; in fact, the officers who killed him went out of their way to look as thuggish and intimidating as possible. Heard from Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter and former Stephens County District Attorney Danny and. Killed him this list of 12 popular spots, SPONSORED: See the Great Mountains! Criminal charges off drugs was arraigned virtually before a judge reduced the to! 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