Georgia Pastor, Father-to-Be Killed in Drug Sting

Fox News/AP ^ | September 4, 2009 | N/A

[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.

[DJ MacWoW]

Two guys in street clothes, with guns, jump out of a vehicle and come at you and you’d assume they were cops?

[GOPJ]

It’s sad that a good man had to die - but it’s dangerous to hang out with drug addicts and criminals. Even for men of the cloth...

[allmendream]

I believe it was trying to drive off and striking one of the officers with his car that carried the death sentence.

Maybe the person of interest was just a gay masseuse with meth amphetamines and he was just going to throw it away. ;)

[Bigh4u2]

I didn’t see it all that clearly.

You may be right. I’ll check it again.

[Little Ray]

This is a really bad situation. The whole thing was caught on security cameras. If understand correctly the victim NEVER made a threatening gesture of any sort. He was backing away when shot.

Some cops are probably going to jail for a long, long time.

[Zakeet]

Better reporting including a video of the shooting of the pastor (left) HERE.

A northeast Georgia pastor has died after being shot by agents from a multi-county drug task force.

GBI spokesman John Bankhead said 28-year-old Jonathan Paul Ayers, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, was not the target of the sting operation but a woman in his car was under investigation.

The shooting occurred after Ayers dropped the woman off at a store in downtown Toccoa Tuesday afternoon.

Bankhead said agents approached Ayers for questioning but the pastor tried to avoid them, putting his car in reverse before he struck one of the agents.

Bankhead said an agent shot at the car and Ayers suffered a gunshot wound to the torso. The cause of his death was pending the results of an autopsy.

The woman was charged with cocaine possession and distribution.

Ayers’ brother-in-law Matt Carpenter talked with News Channel 7’s coverage partners at the “Independent Mail’ and said the pastor had nothing to do with drugs.

“Any question of his character, particularly involving something like drugs, is just ridiculous,” he said. Ayers’ wife is 4 months pregnant with their first child.

The ‘Independent Mail’ also published Ayers’ last blog entry. Before his last blog entry, Ayers had posted a two-part article on “Ten Things I Can’t Believe.”

His list began with this entry: “I can’t believe that Jesus would choose me. I never deserved it! I can’t believe that He would love me and want me!”

The list included this entry:

“I can’t believe that I am going to (be) a dad. … I want to apologize to the whole world because this kids going to be one messed up, Jesus loving, church going, Georgia fan if there has ever been one. I pray and hope that is at least for the first two things!”

Ayers’ funeral is planned for 2 p.m. Friday at Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia. Strickland Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. To read more on this story, click here.

[Politicalmom]

Someone should have informed Jesus about that.

[Niteranger68]

After watching the video, I will bet anything that the young man thought he was being carjacked!

[steven33442]

I just viewed the video . . this is murder by the police, who were not in uniform.

Bloody, stinking, murder.

[tioga]

those two cops look like thugs....jumping out in street clothes holding guns? I’d run too....who wants to stay and get shot?

[rawhide]

When the paramedics were treating him at the scene, he was asking who it was that had shot him? He had no idea it was cops.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

I watched it several times. It was hard to make out the exact sequence of events. I am not ready to pass judgment on either one at this time.

It will be interesting to follow the story.

[DJ MacWoW]

Ga. pastor shot, killed by undercover police

Ayers used an ATM at a Shell convenience store around 2:30 p.m. and the officers, who were in plain clothes, jumped out of a moving vehicle as Ayers was backing out of the parking lot.

[DJ MacWoW]

Family, store owner wonder if preacher knew the men who shot him were officers

Before he died Wednesday, with bullet wounds to his liver, pastor Jonathan Ayers asked paramedics who shot him.

“I’ve rerun it in my mind,” Carpenter said. “He had used an ATM inside, got into his car and then a black Escalade pulled up and [they] jumped out ... If they ID’d themselves, he couldn’t hear them because his windows were up.”

The store owner, Joe Joseph, said he didn’t know the agents were law enforcement officers and it looked like they were firing at each other.

[rawhide]

Jonathan Paul Ayers, 28, and his wife, Abby,

[IYAS9YAS]

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.

Until I'm fully aware and clearly certain the individual in plain clothes and weilding a gun is an officer of the law, all bets are off.

[rawhide]

More info here: http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/090409/new_489412755.shtml

[Wolfie]

Amazing Jesus lived as long as he did, what with the company he kept.

[Kakaze]

6 weeks ago, in Albuquerque, NM, I had a gas station incident.

We filled up and then, when I started the car I had no guages ( all electronic). I pulled into the farthest bay and opened the hood to check fuses and connections.......my mistake.

I wound up, blocking myself from the store front. A old chevy van pulled in, the driver went inside.

The passenger yells at me that he wants a "dollar' for gas, who borrows a dollar for gas.

I told him I had my own problems today and could not spare anything., This guy says "That cadillac has made you a smart ass, we will take what you have."

I slam the fuse box & hood back down and head for the drivers seat, my wife is in the store so I am going to go get her.

Both of my dogs a mean old dalmation / grey hound and a bull dog that loves everyone popped out of the window and stopped this guy.

When I slammed the fuse box down it sparked and reconnected everything, I got my wife in the car and headed down the road..........the one thing I wanted was space.

My point is I can understand why some one would bug out of a gas station.

[GOPJ]

Sorry - but Jesus wasn't a "soft touch" for lowlifes.

He brought them up - he didn't hang with them in dens of iniquity. That said, ministers assist those who seek salvation. As they should.

But, do you think that's what these drug addicts were doing at the time of this death?