The defense asked for the amount to be reduced under a specific formula; Story granted the request by decreasing it to $1.6 million, as a better estimate of the income Jonathan Ayers would have been expected to receive. Jesse Jackson to right-wing libertarians like Ron Paul, Walter Williams and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnsonhave pointed out that the war on drugs has become much deadlier than the drugs themselves. The police were trailing Barrett at the time. Friends said Ayers had been ministering to the woman trying to convince her to get off drugs. 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Franklin said if the person shot that day had been "a druggie, a thug, a person of disrepute, then it could have been a completely different response from the public. 1, 2019 at 5:28 PM EDT. A cafeteria-style restaurant leads this list of 12 popular spots, SPONSORED: See the Great Smoky Mountains in style. Jonathan Ayers; Toccoa, Georgia, 2009. | The police claimed they announced themselves, but it isn't difficult to see how Ayersor anyone elsemight have been confused in the commotion. Heres the blurry video from the Convenience store showing officers shooting at him as he drives away. The same Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team involved in the death of Jonathan Ayers did conduct the alleged drug buy and investigation before last weeks raid. 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The grand jury hearing was the most one-sided miscarriage of justice that I have ever heard of. His wife was expecting their first child. It was WWII. The grand jury also heard from Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter and former Stephens County District Attorney Mike Crawford. He called the charges a self-defense case but didnt provide any further details. Grand jury clears officers in minister shooting, Officials claim law enforcement fatally shot pastor after he drove car in threatening way, SPONSORED: How to start a hiking, backpacking habit in 2022. They identified themselves as police officers, which civilian witnesses say happened. One of the people he had been helping was a woman who had a history of problems. Idexx Laboratories Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Ayers is taking a medical leave of absence following what the company said was a serious bicycling accident on June 27. Mike Franklin with The Torch, the Church of God located in Demorest, Ga., knows Harrison and Oxner and also knew Ayers. They pulled up behind him in an unmarked black SUV. And he continues to get anonymous messages, including the Christmas card depicting Hell. Privacy Policy | Armed agents dressed in street clothes then rushed Ayerss car. 1. Had war on drugs supporters learned a lesson from Navarros death, it is quite possible that the killings of the Rev. Vous avez des problmes de TNT ? This would have been a grossly disproportionate way for these cops to have approached Barrett, their actual suspect, much less a guy they sought to question only about the 10 minutes he'd just spent in the car with her. "He was an unarmed man. In a letter to Rickman, Gwinnett County District Attorney Daniel Porter said the officers had "sufficient articulable suspicion" to question Ayers and that no criminal charges were warranted. They followed the car as Ayers dropped the woman off at a gas station. The Rev. A jury awarded Abigail Ayers $2.3 million, but a judge reduced the amount to $1.64 million after reassessing lost wages. 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. Barley didnt speak during the brief arraignment hearing. Before he died, he was able to speak to his wife "If an unmarked Escalade truck pulled up where I was and two guys dressed like drug dealers jumped out with guns drawn and approached me, I don't think I would wait around one second to find out who they were or what their motives were," one person wrote in a letter to the Toccoa Record. When 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 fired a shot. "Once all these facts are in public view, we feel it will be abundantly clear that there was no legal justification for the undercover drug agent to shoot and kill Jonathan Ayers in broad daylight on the streets of Toccoa, Ga.". "I don't want someone on a task force or as a law enforcement officer who shoots first and asks questions later, and unfortunately, that's what we have here," Claytor told the AJC. Ayers' sister did not return a call from CNN Thursday. 3.1.2023 12:01 AM, 2022 Reason Foundation | The badges they had hanging from their necks, seen in this photo, were far from conspicuous. But instead of apprehending her at the motel, they instead followed Ayers, the stranger they'd just seen give her a ride and hand her some cash. 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 Officer Billy Shane Harrison then opened fire, shooting Ayers in the stomach. The two said they thought the driver of the burgundy Honda may have been her drug source. Her lawsuit claims that the officers decision to wait until he returned to his car and then - in video captured on a surveillance camera - speed to a stop beside him and jump out of a black SUV wearing plain clothes with weapons drawn would cause a reasonable person to assume they were not police but criminals. In September 2009, Johnathan Ayers, a 28-year-old Baptist pastor from Lavonia, Ga., was gunned down by a North Georgia narcotics task force in the parking lot of a gas station. One of the bullets reportedly grazed one of the victims. (WVUE/Raycom) NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A man that was killed in the In my post on Ayers, I noted how little professional accountability there had been for the death of Jonathan Ayers. WebJonathan Ayers of Hart County, age 28, died Tuesday night at Stephens County Hospital after being treated for a gunshot wound received during an incident at a convenience undercover with the Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression team on the night of the shooting, Sept. 1, 2009. But the task force also serves two other counties, and so is also overseen by the sheriffs of those counties. He suggested allowing a grand jury to investigate further about possible policy violations or civil liability. One of the most disturbing examples of "collateral damage" in the war on drugs was that of the Rev. In hostage situations, for example, a SWAT team can save lives. In a democratic republic, the innocent until proven guilty concept is supposed to be sacrosanct.Jurors, police officers, judges and prosecuting attorneysat least in theoryare required to err on the side of caution, and if a guilty person occasionally goes free, so be it. And not too many cases were it's obvious the shooting was bad or even unnecessary. Thats a remarkably fast investigation given that the raid happened less than two days ago. "People are so ramped up and emotional," Mike Ayers of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the AJC. An unmarked Escalade pulls up and three men jump out in masks and guns. At an inquest, a predominantly white jury decided that the shooting was accidental and that Baggett should not be charged with anything. Shortly after he got back into his car, a black Escalade tore into the parking lot. The Rev. But the raid itself was conducted by the Habersham County Special Response Team. On January 4, 2008, narcotics officer Joseph Chavalia shot and killed 26-year-old Tarika Wilson in Lima, Ohio. Apologists for the killing claimed that Mena (a Mexican immigrant) had a gun, and LeRoy Lemos (a community activist) responded: If police hadn't gotten the wrong house, Mena would be alive. A federal jury in Gainesville, Ga., said a reasonable officer would have realized that Ayers' "The subject kept going and drove off," Bankhead said. Ayers He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Fort Bragg, N.C., before reporting to the 173rd in July 2006. WebThe Springville Police Department announced Monday that Jonathan Hamilton was the man killed in Springvilles fourth fatal shooting of the past month. He died at the hospital. The man that Harrison, a Stephens County sheriff's deputy, killed in downtown Toccoa was Jonathan Ayers a young, popular preacher who had inadvertently stepped into an undercover drug investigation. Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press. Jonathan Ayers, 28, was shot Sept. 1, 2009, in WebA federal jury awarded more than $2.3 million Thursday afternoon to the family of a Toccoa pastor shot and killed by a sheriffs deputy. ------------------------------------------. Ayers is yet more collateral damage in the boundlessly tragic and wasteful drug war, as are his widowed wife Abigail and the child she was carrying at the time of his death. (She had allegedly sold an undercover officer $50 worth of cocaine.) Jonathan Ayers had taken money out of an ATM in the convenience store and was beginning to pull out of the parking lot when Harrison, along with other deputies dressed in plainclothes, according to court documents, approached him. It was a hot, late summer Georgia afternoon. I'm thinking of Dustin Pigeon, Andrew Thomas, Daniel Shaver and Jonathan Ayers. That a police officer untrained in the use of lethal force and unqualified to be holding a badge and gun was put on a narcotics task force, and then placed in a position where he was able to shoot and kill a non-suspect is worse. The Jonathan Ayers story was already outrageous enough. Ayers likely had his windows up and his air conditioning on. Stephens County sheriff Randy Shirley has placed both officers involved in the incident on paid administrative leave, he said. "The vigilantes will get their justice, hopefully, in civil court. He asked emergency personnel if he was going to make it and told his wife at the hospital to take care of herself and that he did nothing wrong. | Ayers continued to drive, fleeing the parking lot for about a thousand yards before eventually crashing his car. "The video seemed to be the main catalyst for a lot of anger," Rickman said. 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. These officers jumped from an SUV waving their guns commando-style over a possible $50 drug transaction. 3.1.2023 7:00 AM, Charles Oliver Accelyne Williams; Boston, 1994. Bob Claytor, pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Toccoa. According to Ayerss lawsuit, the woman was about to be evicted from the motel at which she was staying. Toccoa is about 95 miles northeast of Atlanta. Your email address will not be published. She also received Accelyne Williams was no drug dealer. Want to share a story? The war on drugs is not only fought aggressively, it is fought carelessly and haphazardly, and a long list of innocent victims have been killed or maimed in the process. WebFourth District Court Judge James Brady ordered a Salt Lake County man to stand trial for attempted aggravated murder Wednesday for allegedly shooting and injuring a man Jonathan Paul Ayers, a pastor at the small Shoal Creek Baptist Church, was shot outside a Toccoa convenience store by plainclothes drug agents on Sept. 1. When Chavalia and other narcotics officers raided the house where Wilson was living, Terry was nowhere to be found. Your email address will not be published. So those fair investigations that went to extraordinary lengths failed to discover that the cop who shot Ayers not only had prior disciplinary problems, but also he wasnt even legally authorized to be a cop, much less carry a gun. The Cache County Deputy Attorney Tony Baird said Barley was arrested by Cache County Sheriffs deputies after he allegedly shot at the group of teenagers. This article originally appeared on Alternet. He wasnt authorized to make arrests or to carry a gun. From there he was taken to a hospital where he later died from massive blood loss. Tragically, that cost Ayers his life when, on September 1, 2009, he gave a woman named Johanna Jones Barrett $23 to help her pay her rent. Officers said they were in plain clothes but wore badges around their necks and identified themselves as police. WebA Stephens County grand jury decided that narcotics officers Billy Shane Harrison and Kyle Bryant were justified in shooting Jonathan Ayers, 28, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist The grand jury heard testimony from several members of the Mountain Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team and had the chance to question the witnesses, including Harrison. Gwinnett Countys district attorney and a retired DA were asked to review the case. In a split second, Ayers car is seen backing up and striking Oxner, and Harrison shoots. The law cited by the grand jury states in part that a person who uses threats or force in defense of self or others is immune from criminal prosecution. Heres when your childs school will get one. Although Paz was a gun owner, he never shot at the officershe didnt live long enough. 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. WebJonathan Ayers We found 100+ records for Jonathan Ayers in MD, WV and 32 other states. Rickman would tell a local paper that the investigations went to extraordinary lengths, and,I do not see how anybody could say the process was unfair based on the lengths that they went to.. It ought to cast more doubt on the already dubious notion that police shootings should only be investigated by other police officers. And all three of them pled guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to violate her civil rights. No illegal drugs were found in Navarros home, and blood tests conducted after his death showed no traces of any illegal drugs in his system. In a civil suit, Johnstons family was awarded a $490,000 settlement. 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. "The community reaction has been mostly negative," said the Rev. A Stephens County grand jury decided that narcotics officers Billy Shane Harrison and Kyle Bryant were justified in shooting Jonathan Ayers, 28, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Ga., in a botched drug arrest on Sept. 1, 2009. Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? GAINESVILLE, Ga. (ABP) Two north Georgia police officers have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against them for their use of deadly force in a 2009 shooting that claimed the life of a Baptist pastor. A Stephens County grand jury began hearing evidence in the case Tuesday and issued a finding Friday afternoon. "We are in the process of gathering all the facts surrounding this terrible incident," Stroberg said. Based on that finding, jurors said officers involved in the incident "would be immune from criminal prosecution" under Georgia law. 10. Stephens County District Attorney Brian Rickman and Assistant District Attorney Rick Bridgeman presented the case. The pastor may have fled the police, the grand jury concluded, because he feared his reputation would be ruined if his relationship with Barrett were exposed. "They approached the vehicle. @w_katz1 Anyway, they do indeed go on and on. In the end, the jury decided the shooting was justified. Ayers had not been a suspect in any drug investigation. When he returned and got into his car they pounced. 3.1.2023 8:00 AM, J.D. The woman who was in the car with Ayers was taken into custody and faces drug charges, Bankhead said. But with the war on drugs, the concept of innocent until proven guilty has fallen by the wayside on countless occasions. Hours before Ayers was killed, police say Johanna Barrett sold undercover officer Chance Oxner $50 worth of crack cocaine. Kathryn Johnston; Atlanta, Georgia, 2006. Ayers was shot The GBI was called in. Garcia had been in the Army since October 2002. Rickman also cleared the cops in the Ayers case. That substance abuser was a police informant who gave Boston narcotics officers the address of an alleged drug dealer who lived in the same building as Williams, but a SWAT team raided the wrong apartmentWilliams apartmentand after being violently shoved onto the ground and handcuffed, the minister began to vomit. Neither the family or Mrs. Ayers have embraced any of this, attorney Richard Hendrix said. When they approached to question him, Ayers reportedly tried to flee and his car struck one of the officers. WebLooking for Jonathan Ayers online? 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. From the moment the 28-year-old Lavonia Shoal Creek Baptist Church minister was shot, the rumors began. This article was published more than8 years ago, (CORRECTION: The copy below is slightly incorrect. 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.. A Stephens County grand jury had cleared the agents of criminal wrongdoing shortly after the incident. Innocent civilians have more to fear from botched drug raids and careless police work than they do from drug dealers. A lot of white faces, too. In September 2009, Johnathan Ayers, a 28-year-old Baptist pastor from Lavonia, Ga., was gunned down by a North Georgia narcotics task force in the parking lot of a gas station. Chavalia later said he thought shots were coming from that bedroom, but the fact that he killed an unarmed woman holding a baby was inexcusable, especially in light of the fact that Wilson, according to her sister Tania Wilson, was not involved in drug sales herself. 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. 2023 Baptist News Global. Authorities have identified a man accused of standing on Interstate 71 northbound and shooting at vehicles Friday morning near the Gemini Place interchange. Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here. Abigail Marilyn Ayers was originally awarded $2.3 million in damages and expenses by a jury in February. ", UGA star Jalen Carter present at scene of fatal crash, Kemp administration deals blow to Buckhead cityhood push, OPINION: The latest crime in Buckhead is the City of Buckhead City, Former Atlanta fire chief says God brought slaves to America to save them, Georgia Tech hammers Syracuse as Jackets late-season surge continues, Atlantas stitch transit project wins $1.1 million federal grant, Atlanta Mayor Dickens building task force for input on training center, Derailment disaster a window on American reality of accepting risks, Timber frame office building at Ponce City Market Atlanta starts to rise, Supreme Court hearing on student loan forgiveness: What it means for Georgians. For example, Claytor said, the first media reports said Ayers was involved in the drug trade. Harrison said he initially thought his partner was seriously injured or dead and he thought the car was going to hit him, too. But a lot more shooting was done by the officers: a total of 39 shots were fired, several of which hit her. * Cpl. Police later said that was not true. Williams suffered a heart attack and died. By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism. According to the originally filed civil complaint, Harrison later claimed he shot the victim because, at the time, he thought "And later he ran off the road. Cardenas, clearly, found himself in the same position as Ayers: he was violently confronted by police officers he didnt know were police; he ran for his life and was shot dead. All rights reserved. Hall school board approves $11M for giant classroom touchscreens. Published: Jul. U.S. District Judge Richard Story also decreased the initial amount awarded in damages and expenses. Officers claimed Navarro had a gun and fired at them, but ballistics tests proved that all 30 shots were fired by the officers. A 34-year-old Snellville woman has been identified as the victim of a fatal shooting that occurred at her place of employment in the Centerville area on Friday. A man shot another family member, an adult, whom he mistakenly believed was a burglar, The Bible says an eye for an eye, one reader wrote the Toccoa Record. Authorities say they found nothing illegal in Jonathan Ayers' car after he was slain during a drug sting. Judge Angela Fonnesbeck set bail for Barley at $5,000 and ordered him to appear again in court Wednesday morning. Rickman told the AJC that calls to his office started the day after the shooting. The Narks are murderers for shooting an innocent preacher, You trying to justify it only shows how weak some Georgia citizens are. 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