Atlanta Police Chief George Turner announced Tuesday that officer-involved shootings resulting in death of serious injury will no longer be investigated internally.
The GBI will now handle all such cases, as they do for almost every other county and municipality in Georgia.
Turner said the move was prompted by a variety of factors, including the controversy surrounding the October 2014 shooting death of a Chicago teen, Laquan McDonald, and the ensuing cover-up alleged by critics of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his police force. Atlanta police officers were involved in nine shootings last year resulting in death or serious injury, according to Turner.
Keenan said the GBI was already overburdened, having taken on all Gwinnett and DeKalb county police shootings in 2015. Governor Nathan Deal has requested 20 additional agents for the GBI in his upcoming state budget.
The GBI investigated 91 police shootings last year, Keenan said. So far none of the officers involved have been prosecuted, though DeKalb District Attorney Robert James will go before a grand jury on Thursday seeking murder charges against Officer Robert Olsen for the March 2015 shooting of unarmed veteran Anthony Hill.
— A more complete article on the APD’s decision will be posted later this afternoon on myajc.com.
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