The Department of Homeland Security Turns 20. 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. "They will suffer the consequences.". Mario Paz; El Monte, California, 1999. 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. The pastor, understandably, attempted to escape. Had war on drugs supporters learned a lesson from Navarros death, it is quite possible that the killings of the Rev. Watch surveillance video of Ayers' car hitting officer , Authorities say Jonathan Ayers was in car with drug suspect, When police approached car, they claim Ayers struck officer with vehicle, Another officer shot Ayers; both officers placed on paid administrative leave, Nothing illegal found in Ayers' vehicle, authorities say. Neither the family or Mrs. Ayers have embraced any of this, attorney Richard Hendrix said. Attorneys for the city of New York agreed to pay $1.6 million to Spruills family. Thats a remarkably fast investigation given that the raid happened less than two days ago. Instead, Ayers had either been ministering to or having an affair with (depending on whom you believe) Johanna Kayla Jones Barrett, the actual target of the investigation. In September 2009, the On the day Ayers was killed, Harrison had yet to take a series of firearms training classes required for his certification as a police officer. Jonathan Ayers, pastor at Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Georgia, died after the incident Tuesday afternoon in the nearby town of Toccoa, Georgia, police said. Abigail Marilyn Ayers was originally awarded $2.3 million in damages and expenses by a jury in February. 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. But a lot more shooting was done by the officers: a total of 39 shots were fired, several of which hit her. 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.. Police would later acknowledge he was not using or trafficking in illicit drugs. Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Find Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok profiles, images and more on IDCrawl - free people search website. 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. Family members said he asked who shot him and said he had done nothing wrong. Friends said Ayers had been ministering to the woman trying to convince her to get off drugs. Police later determined what they had seen was not a drug transaction, but "other circumstances were involved, and that's part of the investigation," Bankhead said. Up until that moment, Ayers was known to most as a man devoted to his family and faith. She prohibited him from possessing weapons or consuming alcohol if released from jail. Harris fired twice at the fleeing vehicle, grazing Ayers on the arm and striking him in the torso. 2023 Baptist News Global. And all three of them pled guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to violate her civil rights. Radley Balko SWAT teams can serve a valuable function in law enforcement. 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WebOne man is dead and a second person was sent to the hospital after a shooting in Treme on Tuesday, Oct. 12. Before he died, he was able to speak to his wife Authorities have identified a man accused of standing on Interstate 71 northbound and shooting at vehicles Friday morning near the Gemini Place interchange. The police claimed they announced themselves, but it isn't difficult to see how Ayersor anyone elsemight have been confused in the commotion. But with the war on drugs, the concept of innocent until proven guilty has fallen by the wayside on countless occasions. WebShooting a commercial for emagine theater that will be played at every theater across the country before every movie they play..awesome Jump to Sections of this page 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. Hall school board approves $11M for giant classroom touchscreens. It was WWII. He then put the car in drive and accelerated forward, nearly striking Billy Shane Harris, an agent for the Mountain Narcotics Criminal Investigation & Suppression Team. One of the bullets reportedly grazed one of the victims. Still, many residents are unconvinced. And while Johnston was lying on the floor dying, Smith handcuffed her. And even today, police acknowledge he was not using or trafficking in illicit drugs. Individuals arrested and charged in complaints are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court. The badges they had hanging from their necks, seen in this photo, were far from conspicuous. On the other side are those who say Harrison and fellow deputy Chance Oxner did the best they could with the information they had when they tried to stop Ayers from driving away. "Tell your boss we demand justice for these murdering thugs,'" was one of the first messages left for him, Rickman said. Those were bad. 3.23.2010 7:00 AM. According to the originally filed civil complaint, Harrison later claimed he shot the victim because, at the time, he thought Ayers had killed one of his partners in the parking lot. After causing Spruills death, the officers realized that they had just killed an innocent person. Williams suffered a heart attack and died. The case reads the defendant is effectively insolvent even before any judgment, and a judgment over $1 million plainly will render him insolvent., As (the) plaintiff points out, she suffered her loss nearly five years ago and has been in litigation over four years, the case reads. All they care about is making money. 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. Ayers was shot Required fields are marked *. But Abigail Ayers' civil suit (PDF) calls that assessment into question. Mellontree, in a 1992 interview, told the New York Times: People cant accept the idea that a 84-year-old grandmother gets shot in her bed, and its not even worth a negligence charge.. The woman was later identified as someone Ayers had been ministering to, trying to convince her to get off of drugs and turn her life around. One of the most disturbing examples of "collateral damage" in the war on drugs was that of the Rev. LOGAN A 29-year-old Ogden man has been arrested for allegedly shooting at a group of teenagers in Providence Canyon. In the end, Ayers was innocent, and a federal jury awarded his widow a $2 million settlement. WebArmed agents dressed in street clothes then rushed Ayerss car. Rev. The officer that was struck by the car was treated and released at a local hospital. But the raid itself was conducted by the Habersham County Special Response Team. An 18-member grand jury in Stephens County in northeast Georgia ruled that the officer who fired two shots that fatally wounded Jonathan Ayers, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Ga., was justified in using lethal force because he reasonably believed he was in physical danger. No matter what the misconduct is, the police are always exonerated., ACLU members were critical of the way the raid was handled and asserted that a no-knock raid was totally uncalled for; Mark Silverstein, legal director for the Colorado ACLU, said, If the government officials who authorized the warrant had followed the law, Ismael Mena would be alive today.. Learn how your comment data is processed. At an inquest, a predominantly white jury decided that the shooting was accidental and that Baggett should not be charged with anything. From there he was taken to a hospital where he later died from massive blood loss. For three days in December, a grand jury was presented with the interviews and watched the video. Previous story (with links to earlier coverage), Widow files lawsuit in police shooting of slain Baptist pastor, Review: Second Thoughts About the Second Coming, West Virginia GOP Majority House OKs Religious Freedom Bill, 30 Years Later, Waco Siege Still Resonates Especially Among Anti-Government Extremists. Ayers, who had known Barrett for a number of years, offered her a ride back to the motel and gave her the money in his pocket, $23, to help pay her rent. Drug raids are often conducted based on information from informants (many of them drug users and/or low-level drug dealers), but all too often, the information is unreliable and costs innocent victims their lives. Jonathan Andrew Barley was booked Saturday night into the Cache County Jail. On January 4, 2008, narcotics officer Joseph Chavalia shot and killed 26-year-old Tarika Wilson in Lima, Ohio. The two said they thought the driver of the burgundy Honda may have been her drug source. Yet somehow he had been given a position on a narcotics task force, a position that not only gave him a gun but put him in volatile, high-stakes situations where he might be tempted to use it. Authorities say they found nothing illegal in Jonathan Ayers' car after he was slain during a drug sting. 5. Au total il y a 112 utilisateurs en ligne :: 3 enregistrs, 0 invisible et 109 invits (daprs le nombre dutilisateurs actifs ces 3 dernires minutes)Le record du nombre dutilisateurs en ligne est de 850, le 05 Avr 2016 19:55 Utilisateurs enregistrs: Google [Bot], Senuphile, Yahoo [Bot] WebAn 18-member grand jury in Stephens County in northeast Georgia ruled that the officer who fired two shots that fatally wounded Jonathan Ayers, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist The Stephens County, Georgia Sheriff's Department initially said Ayers was a drug suspect, but later had to retract. 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. And not too many cases were it's obvious the shooting was bad or even unnecessary. Rickman told the AJC that calls to his office started the day after the shooting. The Jonathan Ayers story was already outrageous enough. Ayers maintained a blog, in which he wrote that he had three loves in life: "Jesus Christ, my wife Abby, and the Church.". 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 Many people from across the political spectrumfrom the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, the National Urban League and the Rev. 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. It was later revealed that Rickman had appointed the head of the task force at the time of the Ayers shooting, and was a close personal friend with the officer (who is now deceased). Enter your email below to start! "The community reaction has been mostly negative," said the Rev. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. "The vigilantes will get their justice, hopefully, in civil court. In a split second, Ayers car is seen backing up and striking Oxner, and Harrison shoots. For example, Claytor said, the first media reports said Ayers was involved in the drug trade. In February, I posted about a settlement in the death of Jonathan Ayers, an innocent pastor that this same drug task force killed in a drug operation in 2009. Your email address will not be published. And he continues to get anonymous messages, including the Christmas card depicting Hell. He suspects they are private detectives. In my post on Ayers, I noted how little professional accountability there had been for the death of Jonathan Ayers. On August 9, 1999, 64-year-old Mario Paz was in his home in Southern California when up to 20 narcotics officers for the city of El Monte conducted a no-knock raid and used a grenade during the attack. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. His reported last words were, Who shot me?, Ayers had no drugs in his car or in his system, and there was no evidence he was using or distributing anything illegal. Defense attorney Shannon Demler said his client was trying to protect himself. 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