Julian Lewis didn’t pull over for the Georgia State Patrol cruiser flashing its blue lights behind him on a rural highway. He still didn’t stop after pointing a hand out the window and turning onto a darkened dirt road as the trooper sounded his siren.
Five minutes into a pursuit that began over a broken taillight, the 60-year-old Black man was dead — shot in the forehead by the white trooper who fired a single bullet mere seconds after forcing Lewis to crash into a ditch. Trooper Jake Thompson insisted he pulled the trigger as Lewis revved the engine of his Nissan Sentra and jerked his steering wheel as if trying to mow him down.
“I had to shoot this man,” Thompson can be heard telling a supervisor on video recorded by his dash-mounted camera at the shooting scene in rural Screven County, midway between Savannah and Augusta. “And I’m just scared.”
But new investigative details obtained by The Associated Press and the never-before-released dashcam video of the August 2020 shooting have raised fresh questions about how the trooper avoided prosecution with nothing more than a signed promise never to work in law enforcement again. Use-of-force experts who reviewed the footage for AP said the shooting appeared to be unjustified.
Fuck that cop, but also, the guy was stupid enough to not pull over. He didn’t deserve death, but I bet he could have avoided death had he just done what he was legally obligated to do.
I’m very curious to see how many downvotes this rationale will get.
Stupidity shouldn’t result in death. And not following the law also shouldn’t result in death as long as lives aren’t actively endangered.
Aside from that, chasing the guy over a broken light was pretty dumb of the cop. Noncooperative vehicles are a BIG hazard to other traffic. Write down the number plate, visit them at home. The taillight will still be broken tomorrow.
We both know he was using the broken tail light as probable cause for a stop. He wanted him to pull over because he suspected he was drunk or on drugs or simply because he was black with a broken tail light.
As soon as the man didn’t pull over the cop got his hackles up and now he was definitely going to stop him. Escalation is the way with cops.
Nice whataboutism! Of course he should have stopped but that’s not even close to the point and fuck you for trying to make it the point when a man was murdered. You’re a bad person
You’re not entirely wrong, the guy should have stopped. A good cop, however, would’ve been able to handle the situation without firing his damn gun.
So it turns out that racially insensitive victim blaming and bootlicking is worth at least a few dozen downvotes. Congratulations?
What I said is true. The people downvoting need to examine themselves for the flaw in their thinking. And you’re a racist if you read any racism in what I said since I never mentioned race.
I was taught by a cop during drivers ed that you should wait to pull over until it is safe for both you and the cop, since the cop has to walk along the side of the road to come to you. Slow down and turn on your emergency lights to signal to the cop that you acknowledge, but then wait until there is a gas station or safe exit from the highway.
I’ve had cops yell at me for doing that and other cops thank me for doing that.
Don’t stop the moment a cop tells you? Death.
Seems reasonable and proportionate to me.
In Judge Dredd.