The ex-Atlanta cop charged with murder in the shooting of an unarmed man will remain behind bars at least until Aug. 1.
James R. Burns made his first appearance before a judge Monday morning for a formal reading of the charges against him, two days after turning himself into the Fulton County Jail in connection with the fatal shooting of Deravis Caine Rogers, 22.
Less than a month ago, Burns was patrolling Atlanta’s streets in uniform. Monday, he stood in handcuffs and and dressed dark blue jail fatigues. As Fulton County Magistrate Court Judge Melynee Leftridge read the charges — murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violation of his oath of office — Burns stood silently.
He’ll be held in the Fulton jail without bond until his preliminary hearing, which the judge set for Aug. 1.
Burns shot Rogers once in the head as he tried to drive away from a northeast Atlanta complex on June 22. Afterward, the white officer said the young black man tried to run him over with his car.
But an internal investigation by the Atlanta Police Department determined that Rogers posed no threat to the officer and found no evidence Rogers committed a crime. Atlanta Police Chief George Turner fired Burns July 1, calling his actions an unnecessary and excessive use of force.
The case took a dramatic turn Friday when Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard secured arrest warrants for the officer. Howard's move to charge Burns before presenting the case to a grand jury is without precedent in recent Georgia history.
Of the 184 fatal police shootings in Georgia between 2010 and 2015, not one officer faced criminal prosecution during that period, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Channel 2 Action News investigation last year. On the rare occasion a district attorney presented an indictment to a grand jury, they did so without ever charging the officer first. Howard's actions Friday marked a departure from those legal privileges afforded officers.
“We will proceed in this case in the same manner as any other defendant similarly charged — arrest, indictment and resolution,” Howard, who will present the case to a grand jury in early August, said in a statement Friday.
Drew Findling, Burns’ attorney, made limited comments after Monday’s hearing. He called the shooting a “tragedy,” but said his firm was conducting its own aggressive investigation. In an apparent swipe at Howard, Findling asserted that the warrants obtained to secure Burns’ arrest were “issued very prematurely.”
Deravis Thomas, Rogers’ father, sat behind a glass partition that separated court spectators from the bench where Burns sat alone. Thomas said he didn’t come to see the officer, only to help ensure justice for his son.
“He loved life and that’s been taken from him,” Thomas said. “It pains us. You can’t describe this pain. I’d be here for a year trying to describe how this feels — to overnight lose something I can never get back.”
Separately, Melva Rogers, Rogers’ mother, sued Burns and the city of Atlanta police department in Atlanta’s federal district court, alleging violations of her son’s civil rights.
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