It’s been a year since Chris McKinley and his wife, Leah, were watching a movie on the couch in their East Atlanta home, when they heard a strange noise and went to check it out.
They slowly opened the door between the den and their kitchen, and saw three men standing in their home.
“As I’m opening it, pow pow pow pow pow,” said Chris McKinley, adding that he hadn’t even made it all the way into the kitchen when a bullet struck him.
It all happened so fast the young couple, their one-year-old son sleeping in room just a few feet away, thought they were being robbed.
“It was 5 shots and I thought they just murdered (Chris), they’re going to come for me and they’re going to get my baby. And that’s all I could think about,” said Leah McKinley.
Their assailants? The DeKalb County Police Department.
When it was over, the McKinleys’ ten-year-old Boxer, Yanna, who police also shot, was dead on the kitchen floor. Chris McKinley lay on the ground with a gunshot to the leg and the family’s trust in police shattered.
The couple has spent the past year seeking answers from a department that has yet to even apologize or offer a clear explanation about how the incident involving their three uniformed officers went so wrong. Chris McKinley underwent months of physical and emotional therapy as he’s tried to recover from the violent episode.
“It carries this hard, heavy, heavy weight on your heart. And it really screws with you,” he said.
Filled with anxiety, the couple moved from the home they loved. The visual reminders were too traumatic.
“I can’t turn it off. I see it all the time. I imagine it all the time; if I hear noises; if I’m at home by myself,” said Leah McKinley said.
The couple says the officers never even tried to help Chris McKinley after shooting him. They seemed more concerned about one of their own officers, who was also hit by the police gunfire.
“For someone to not be accountable for their actions is extremely hurtful,” said Leah McKinley.
The couple thought by now, they’d know why it all happened.
It was still light out on Aug. 31, 2015 when the officers were responding to a 911 call of a suspicious person at the far end of the couple’s street, in a cul-de-sac. The officers later said dispatchers did not provide a house number, only a vague description of the color of the home, which resembled the McKinley house.
The description of the suspicious person was that of a 50-year-old black man. The couple is white.
Police admit they were at the wrong house, but when they wrote out the incident report, they listed the wounded officer as the victim and Chris McKinley as the offender.
“It’s just a slap in the face and a reminder of the incompetence from the very beginning until now still,” he said.
The report also lists the wrong address of the house, describes Yanna as a Pit Bull, and says Mr. McKinley ‘burst out of a closed door’, which he says he hadn’t even finished opening when the officers opened fire.
“They were trying to spin a story that would protect them, that would cover what they did,” said the couple’s attorney, Mark Bullman, who has filed notice of the family’s lawsuit against the department and its officers.
Leah McKinley said DeKalb investigators kept trying to suggest her husband had a gun. He had no weapon.
“We’re good people. I’m a teacher. I’m not doing anything wrong. And because they made a poor choice they’re going to try to blame us,” she said.
Police conducted an internal investigation, which they’ve yet to release. Investigators haven’t spoken to the couple since the night of the incident.
“I would have thought that if they were going to perform an investigation they would ask the victims, and nothing, not a word this entire year,” said Chris McKinley
DeKalb Police Chief James Conroy said his heart goes out to the McKinley family and confirmed that his department did do a review of the incident. He said he could not comment on specific details of what happened because of potential litigation.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation finished its review of the case last September, but has refused to release the file as the case is still pending in the DeKalb District Attorney’s office.
It is expected to be presented to a civil grand jury to review the officers’ actions and determine whether a criminal grand jury will hear the case.
The couple hopes their lawsuit will provide some answers and maybe an apology.
“To at least force them into accountability if they’re not willing to admit they did anything wrong,” said Leah McKinley.
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