As David Powell was taken off life support late Thursday afternoon, the circumstances that led to the Stockbridge man's death remained in dispute.
Powell, 63, was shot in the neck by Henry County police who were sent to his home at 690 Swan Lake Road by mistake.
He had committed no crime. In fact, according to a family member, Powell, a U.S. Air Force veteran, feared he and his wife were in danger after he noticed a shadowy figure pass by their bedroom window late in the night Tuesday.
Clifton Worn, Powell’s brother-in-law, who was visiting his mother next door at the time, said Powell’s dogs were “going ballistic.”
Pistol in hand, Powell raised his garage door, where he encountered the police and, according to his wife, the shooting started.
Powell never fired his gun, said Scott Dutton, spokesman for the GBI, which is investigating the shooting. The officers said they fired at Powell only after he ignored orders to put down his weapon.
But based on what Powell said to his wife, he had no idea who had just shot him.
Worn, relaying his sister’s account, said that when Sharon Powell approached the garage she heard her husband say, “Get back in the house! Call 911! I’ve been shot!”
Worn said that by the time he reached the corner of the fence in his mother’s backyard, he saw his brother-in-law lying in a pool of blood in his driveway, about 5 feet outside his garage.
“They’re saying he came out the front door. That front door is never opened,” Worn said. “They’re saying he didn’t drop the gun. I’m saying they never identified themselves.”
There’s no disputing police shouldn’t have been at Powell’s home. According to the GBI, three officers were dispatched to Swan Lake Road at 11:54 p.m. after a caller reported hearing an unknown female yelling for help and gunshots.
Dutton said the operator was never given an exact address even after contacting the caller a second time.
Powell’s home is tucked some 132 yards off the two-lane road that serves as a major artery for this rural section of Henry County. Visitors could easily miss it because it sits behind his mother-in-law’s home down a long dirt driveway.
Chris Smith, who lives across the street from the Powell home, said her 16-year-old daughter heard three gun shots between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Worn said he heard two shots fired sometime after 11 p.m. He said he’s certain of the time because he had just finished watching the local news.
Dutton said it’s not yet known whether there were any shots fired in the vicinity of Powell’s home, as alleged by the 911 caller.
Worn said he couldn’t understand why, if police were responding to a report of shots fired and a woman in distress, “there were no blue lights on when they came in here.”
Worn’s mother, Geraldine Huey, said her son-in-law didn’t do anything she wouldn’t have done.
“I think it’s time policemen know where they’re going and know the right direction,” she said. “It just blows my mind. The more I think about it the crazier I get.”
Smith said it gets exceptionally dark in their neighborhood.
“In the dark, people panic. Nobody’s perfect,” she said. “They didn’t do it maliciously. If we didn’t have some police protection, then we’d be in a worse situation.”
Last month, a man who had fired a gun at his father at their Swan Lake Road home was shot by the police, who had responded to the domestic disturbance.
“This is a good area, but crazy things have been happening around here lately,” Smith said.
All was quiet on Thursday. Sharon Powell was still at the hospital, where she had stayed by her husband’s side until he was pronounced dead around 4 p.m. at Atlanta Medical Center. The couple had been married 41 years, Worn said, and had three children, six grandchildren, and a great-grandchild on the way.
“David’s not a violent person,” Worn said. “He liked being left alone. That’s why he built this house.”
The GBI investigation is still in the preliminary stages, Dutton said. The officer who shot Powell has been placed on paid administrative leave.
Powell’s relatives are anxious for answers.
“If David had walked out and shot a policeman, he’d be in jail right now,” Worn said.
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