R&I – FS
Caroline Small was just 35 years old when she died.
Already struggling with mental health issues as well as drug and alcohol addiction, it is believed her divorce, which had just been finalized days earlier, contributed to her poor state of mind when a Glynn County officer approached her as she sat in her running car. Someone had called police believing Small was doing drugs.
This was June 18, 2010.
When the officer asked her to step out of the vehicle, Small drove off and, for four miles, led officers on a low-speed chase. A short time later, Small’s car was pinned between a utility pole, a ditch at the side of the road and a police car. The tires on her old Buick Century were all flat. She was unarmed and trapped. A state trooper can be heard on dashboard-camera video saying, “Let me get out there and get her out.”
“If she moves the car, I’m going to shoot her,” another officer responds.
Small inches forward. Shots are fired, hitting the mother of two in the head and face. The officers who fired the shots — Sgt. Robert C. Sasser and Officer Michael T. Simpson — can be heard in the police video bragging about their aim. A week later, Small dies.
Mike McDaniel, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent who oversaw the case, called the police shooting “the worst one I’ve ever investigated,” adding, “I don’t think it’s justified.” Still, the officers were not disciplined or charged.
Years later, the Atlanta Journal Constitution (where I was once employed) and WSB-TV News conducted an investigation and found records showing the steps the Glynn County Police Department took to tamper with the crime scene and created misleading evidence that was presented to the grand jury. The report also showed the local district attorney shared the state’s evidence with the two officers months before grand jury proceeding and even struck a deal with the officers involved.
That local district attorney was Jackie Johnson, the same Jackie Johnson that Greg McMichael called after he, his son Travis McMichael and William Bryan Jr. chased down and murdered Ahmaud Arbery.
Dreaming4ever
Article URL : https://www.yahoo.com/news/column-else-terrorized-killed-police-230022834.html