Posted on 09/04/2009 3:13:57 AM PDT by thecabal
Plainclothes officers shot and killed a small-town pastor when the 28-year-old father-to-be resisted efforts to question him about a passenger in his car who was the target of a drug sting, authorities said.
Jonathan Paul Ayers of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia wasn't targeted in the probe that ended in gunfire at a gas station Tuesday, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said. But drug task-force agents opened fire on him after he tried to avoid them, putting his car in reverse and striking one of the officers.
Bankhead said agents approached Ayers after he dropped a woman off at a store in downtown Toccoa, which is about 90 miles northeast of Atlanta. The passenger was the person being investigated by the task force.
A grainy surveillance video from a nearby store shows two drug task-force agents emerge from a black SUV before Ayers' small car backs up. The two men fire into the passenger side of Ayers' car, and then it takes off with the agents running behind it, the video posted on WNEG-TV in Toccoa shows. The station owner would not release the video to The Associated Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Sounds like an awful stiff price to pay for dropping a suspected druggie off at a store - didn’t know it carried the death penalty.
Is it your view:
That this incident is over?
That the officers can just file their reports and go home and that they don't have to justify their actions?
That there won't be a criminal investigation, lawsuits, and depositions stretching out for years?
From what I have heard here locally, they were not in uniform. That got me wondering as well. But, the woman that was with this guy, and their connections, is not at all clear. There may be a whole lot more to this story.
Of that, I am certain.
A "drug sting" and no drugs were found? Yea right.
A grainy surveillance video from a nearby store shows two drug task-force agents emerge from a black SUV before Ayers’ small car backs up.
Before the car backs up?
The first part of the story is they shot him because he backed intoone trying todrive away.
If the viseo does show them firing before the car started to move these guys are toast..
This does sound fishy to me as well. There is every reason to consider that this pastor was helping the woman and when confronted by plainclothes men wielding handguns, he might have become afraid and ran. The gas station owner told Fox News Atlanta that he had no idea that the men were police. However, you just never know. It is a story worth following, although it may be one that is never followed up on.
When I first saw the video I thought the bad guys were in the Avalanche / Escalade. I don’t blame the kid for running.
They weren't in uniform.
This man was murdered in broad daylight for attempting to escape from two strange men with guns.
Nothing new. Nothing new at all. And not the last time either. So it goes.
I agree.
A link to the video might help a few posters (but of course, the usual crowd can make up their minds without video OR reading the story:
http://www.ajc.com/video?bcpid=1659825399&bclid=1716449804&bctid=36838592001
From what I could see of the video it did appear that he hit one of the plain clothes cops as he was backing up.
The question remains though, is why the cop was behind the car in the first place.
I don't care how wrong the cop on the street is, I'm going to take it up (alive, unbeaten, maybe unarrested) with his boss, after the fact.
Thanks for the link. Those guys are toast...............
It appears they were firing BEFORE that “hit”............
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.