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 ...
Robin of Berkeley: ... So the Left detests us because,
We unveil everything they're hiding from, all the cold, cruel facts of life that render them helpless: that in the grand scheme of things, human beings are quite small; that none of us can or should play God; and that there are consequences for cruel or evil behavior.
And perhaps most of all, we trigger in their memory banks those excruciatingly vulnerable moments when the bubble burst, the truth broke through, and they were forced to look reality squarely in the face....
The 'minister' was not God... he needs to deal with evil in a rational setting.
Uh, what?
Are you calling the pastor a drug addict? He was dropping a woman off somewhere. Hardly sounds like a reason for execution by cop.
What is the matter with you? There is no evidence he knew anything about drugs being involved, if he did, maybe he was trying to help the woman. Maybe someone just asked him to give her a ride. Maybe she attended a church event, and had no way to get home.
He sounds like a wonderful man, from his own writings. You may think he’s stupid, but I doubt that the Lord has the same opinion.
Trying to escape is a natural reaction in this situation. Alternatively, if the pastor had a CCW and drawn a weapon in fear for his life, he would have been shot down like a mad dog.
These idiot cops should never had been issued weapons. They should have stayed home watching COPS shows imagining they were real cops!
Condolences to this pastor’s family and congregation. I see no clear justification for this public execution of a citizen by plainclothes police.
Windows up means the A/C was on. I do not doubt he may not have heard.
I have watched the video frame by frame and I have a couple of questions. My questions are not meant to cast doubt on the actions of the cops. These are the situations that I try not to make a judgement one way or another because I fear tarnishing the reputation of anyone unfairly.
If I am reading it correctly, he dropped the woman off and went to the Shell station and used an ATM. I am wondering why they did not simply follow him and pull him using flashing lights. Was there any backup in the area?
Did they run his plates? If he was the registered owner of the vhicle, did they run a record check?
A couple of versions:
and
The agents were assigned to a task force that investigates drug cases in Stephens, Habersham and Rabun Counties. Ayers caught their attention because he was with a woman who twice sold drugs to the officers, said Bankhead.
“What they saw was indicative of drug transaction,” Bankhead said. “They didn’t know the guy. They followed him to the convenience store and tried to arrest him.”
(http://www.ajc.com/news/family-130662.html)
It occurs to me that at some point officers involved in the “DRUG WAR” would ask themselves if it is justifiable to shoot and kill someone “not under investigation” after approaching him in plainclothes in an unmarked SUV at a gas station.
Perhaps they might consider a less dramatic and dangerous way of approaching people, like when they are walking out of the store, or after they have driven onto the road, and doing a felony stop. At least in this methods the victim would have been aware that it was cops after him and not just two thugs and a black SUV.
But hey, if “getting drugs off the streets” is more important than the life of a 28 year old pastor and father-to-be, then these “cops” behaved according to plan.
Yeah. That's how it is. Cops get away with murder all the time.
These guys were in plain clothes. How would you know they were cops? Could have been car jackers or kidnapers in which case your advice could very well leave you dead.
I know of a cop who is doing 25 years for murder. It was one of those times a cop didn't get away with it.
Also, since when do you shoot someone for buying drugs? So he had someone in the car that sold them drugs twice. They didn't see him do anything illegal so they open fire? It was overreaction on the cops part. And an innocent man is dead.
Thanks for the link
Not defending the cops out of hand. I live 2 counties away. I know some of the Sheriff Deputies in my county (NOT part of this Drug Task Force). We have good deputies that I would trust my life with and we have real Bozo’s.
Even if he did know her, it was not a crime to give her a ride.
Why he did not try to shoot out a tire. Did he fire into the car?
I do not understand why they chose that moment to approach him. The woman had been dropped off. He stopped at Shell to get cash for tires. (Might have been one of those cheap, cash only Mexican run tire dealers—there is one about 1 mile from my house) Withdrew money. Got in his car. Windows up, A/C probably going. Black Escalade pulls up. Men jump out. He decides not to hang around for who knows what.
Which leads me back to did they run his plates and if he was the registered owner, did they do a record search? The word arrest was used...based on what? What was so urgent that they could not follow him, get back up and then pull him over with flashing lights.
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=222898&c=10
......Ayers, 28, was the pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia and had entered the Shell convenience store on Currahee Street in Toccoa, apparently to make a withdrawal from an ATM.
A surveillance tape, published by WNEG-TV, shows officers firing on Ayers’ vehicle as he backed out of the convenience store parking lot.
Carpenter said the family received conflicting reports when they were contacted by authorities, first being told Ayers was in a traffic accident. And then, authorities told the family, Ayers had been shot.
“We tried to get details, and there wasn’t much,” said Carpenter. “They weren’t letting Abby [Ayers’ wife] back to see him yet. All we knew was that it was a random shooting. Once we were out at the hospital, we were told he had been shot by a drug dealer.”
It was later in the evening, according to Carpenter, that agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation revealed that Ayers was involved in an officer-related shooting...
(excerpt)
Yep. They didn’t look like Cops to me. More like street thugs.
“I know a Cop who is doing 25 years for murder.”
25 years for murder? I know one who ended up on Death Row in the State Prison at Huntsville, Texas. After several years, he was put down like the mangy dog he was.
Looks like they don't get away with it "all the time." That makes two cops who didn't get away with murder.
Apologies to all, didn’t read closely. Plain clothes, waving guns.... they better try REAL hard to convince me they were cops.
Thanks for your additional information. This makes me ill. Those cops should be arrested for murder and conspiracy to deprive the poor pastor of his rights under color of authority.
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