All rights reserved. A grand jury on Friday found that an officer-involved shooting in which a Lavonia minister was killed was justified. Confusion and self-preservation is not only understandable, it ought to be predictable, even expected. A Stephens County grand jury had cleared the agents of criminal wrongdoing shortly after the incident. Rumors continue to feed the fire. These allegations have since been confirmed by local TV station WSBTV and, after the fact, by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The two outside prosecutors were asked by Rickman to review the case and talk to the grand jury about the case and the law. According to a 1,100-page Georgia Bureau of Investigation report made public after the Dec. 15-18 grand jury probe, undercover officers were in the process of purchasing crack cocaine from a known drug user in hopes of identifying her supplier. In September 2009, the 6. But that's really only the beginning of this mess. Jonathan Ayers was a pastor at the Shoal Creek Baptist Church. Heres when your childs school will get one. Its Legacy Is Disastrous. Ayers crashed his car, was taken to a hospital and died hours later in surgery. An unmarked Escalade pulls up and three men jump out in masks and guns. No one was disciplined for the actual killing of Ayers. Stephens County sheriff Randy Shirley has placed both officers involved in the incident on paid administrative leave, he said. The decision to raid the Paz home, according to Ankeny, was made after narcotics officers found some bills and Department of Motor Vehicle records containing the familys address among the possessions of a drug suspect named Marcos Beltrn. Ayers, who was white, had a reputation for being the type of Christian who didnt spend all of his time on a soap box preaching about sin and salvationhe actually put his money where his mouth was, became active in his community, and did things to help people. 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. Authorities say they found nothing illegal in Jonathan Ayers' car after he was slain during a drug sting. Smith, Junnier and Tesler faced a variety of charges from both the federal government and the state of Georgia. Ayers widow believes her husband thought he was being robbed and tried to get away. A federal judge has awarded more than $800,000 in legal fees to the Hall County widow of a pastor fatally shot by law enforcement. Ayers continued to drive, fleeing the parking lot for about a thousand yards before eventually crashing his car. He shouldn't have been killed," Turpin told the AJC. In 1999, Al Robison (president of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas), denounced the killing of Navarro as a very clear illustration of the insanity of our current drug policy. The officers who raided Navarros home violated department policy by failing to obtain a search warrant. "And later he ran off the road. But no good deed goes unpunished, and on March 25, 1994, Williams efforts to help a substance abuser led to his death. In her September interview with the North Georgian, Barrett told the paper that Ayers had been trying to help kick her drug habit, but later, while facing charges related to both the Ayers case and another incident, she told investigators that Ayers had in previous years paid her for sex. "You may escape justice in this life but you will never escape the final judgment and eternal damnation for your actions! 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. Police later said that was not true. WebAyers, attempting to leave the scene, was shot by Harrison. In a split second, Ayers car is seen backing up and striking Oxner, and Harrison shoots. OnJuly 12, 1998, Houston officers raided Navarroshome based on an alleged drug users claim that drugs were being sold there. Accelyne Williams; Boston, 1994. Published: Jul. 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. Ayers was shot Authorities have identified a man accused of standing on Interstate 71 northbound and shooting at vehicles Friday morning near the Gemini Place interchange. In Denver, one such person was 45-year-old Ismael Mena, who was shot and killed by a SWAT team during a no-knock raid on September 29, 1999. 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. Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? They followed the car as Ayers dropped the woman off at a gas station. No drugs were found in the house, and Bill Ankeny (El Montes assistant police chief) later acknowledged that there was never any evidence of the Paz family being involved in drug dealing. Several people working at the hospital told GBI investigators that Ayers told them he didn't know who shot him. The cop who killed him was fired, but only after it was revealed that he lacked the training. A similar tragedy occurred in San Jose, Calif. on February 17, 2004, when plainclothes officers were attempting to serve a warrant for a drug-related parole violation and 43-year-old Rodolfo Cardenas, a father of five, had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was taken a local hospital, went into surgery and died an hour later. | "Concerning the actions of the officers involved in the death of Jonathan Ayers on Sept. 1, 2009, we find that the use of deadly force by Agent Billy Shane Harrison was legally justified based upon his objectively reasonable belief that such use of force was necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or others," a statement signed by the grand jurors read. 3.1.2023 8:00 AM, J.D. By the time Billy Shane Harrison received the Christmas card depicting Hell, he was numb to the damnation he had endured since he pulled the trigger and killed a fleeing man on Sept. 1. Police would later acknowledge he was not using or trafficking in illicit drugs. 2023 Baptist News Global. Jonathan Ayers; Toccoa, Georgia, 2009. The 14-second incident has split this otherwise pro-law enforcement corner of the state. They first said he was part of their drug investigation all along, then retracted. Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here. Still, many residents are unconvinced. WebJonathan Ayers We found 100+ records for Jonathan Ayers in MD, WV and 32 other states. ------------------------------------------. Find Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok profiles, images and more on IDCrawl - free people search website. Barley was arraigned virtually before a judge in 1st District Court, appearing by web conference from jail Monday afternoon. 1. You've just returned to your car after getting cash from an ATM. The surveillance video was on the Internet within a day of the shooting, fueling speculation and half-accounts that were repeated online and in letters to area newspapers. When he returned and got into his car they pounced. SWAT teams can serve a valuable function in law enforcement. 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. The officers saw Cardenas and assumed he was David Gonzales, the man they were looking forand when they pointed their guns at Cardenas, he fled (first in a vehicle, then on foot) but was shot in the back and killed. Local law enforcement knew sorting out the shooting would be difficult. Once the publicity hit, Harrison was suspended. 8. The officers saw the woman in a car with Ayers and saw what they believed was a drug transaction, Bankhead said. 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. Enter your email below to start! Though Ayers widow announced this week that she would file a federal lawsuit over her husband's death, her attorney said she is not a part of the backlash campaign against the investigation. 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.. In fact, the 75-year-old minister was a substance abuse counselor in Boston and had a long history of doing good work in that citys African-American community. Harrison said he initially thought his partner was seriously injured or dead and he thought the car was going to hit him, too. I knew then that no matter what the investigation showed, it was going to be a terrible situation, said Brian Rickman, the district attorney for the Mountain Judicial Circuit, which includes Stephens and two other counties. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A north Georgia pastor was shot to death by police when he struck an officer with his car after he was seen in a vehicle with a drug suspect, authorities told CNN. Still, local law enforcement officials tried to smear him. 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.. Idexx Laboratories Inc. Chairman, President and CEO Jonathan Ayers is on a medical leave of absence following a serious cycling accident that occurred Thursday. WebArmed agents dressed in street clothes then rushed Ayerss car. Watch surveillance video of Ayers' car hitting officer . 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. WebJonathan Ayers, 28-years-old, was a pastor at the Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Toccoa, Georgia. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 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. The police were trailing Barrett at the time. The shooting in a convenience store parking lot, captured on video by a surveillance camera, has been the subject of an unrelenting debate that has, at times, been ugly in this northeast Georgia town of 9,000. WebLOGAN A 29-year-old Ogden man has been arrested for allegedly shooting at a group of teenagers in Providence Canyon. Rickman told the AJC that calls to his office started the day after the shooting. Radley Balko is a senior editor at Reason magazine. Some contend Ayers was running because he didn't want the police to expose a secret part of his life: Barrett told investigators that she and Ayers had been having an affair for years. And using a SWAT team to go after a small-time drug dealer is bad police work. 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. 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] And he continues to get anonymous messages, including the Christmas card depicting Hell. Abigail Ayers then filed a civil lawsuit in March 2010, alleging gross and plain incompetence in the use of deadly force. In the courts view, it is unconscionable to ask that she wait whatever time is required for an appeal before she can collect her judgment without any assurance that the judgment will, in fact, be collectible.. Dead and he thought the car was going to hit him, too the off. Them he did n't know who shot him Georgia Bureau of Investigation was justified the... Really only the beginning of this mess the car as Ayers dropped the woman a... 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