Just days after the family of a Clayton County man shot and killed by police last month asked for body camera footage of the incident to be released, officials delivered — but the censored video released by authorities answers few of the family’s questions.
Charles Calhoun, 68, was shot by Clayton police near his home on Jenni Circle in Jonesboro just before 6 a.m. on March 23, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. Officers on the scene attempted to render first aid, but Calhoun was pronounced dead in the ambulance, Clayton police said in a news release Monday.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
The statement was issued by police along with a lengthy YouTube video, which includes 911 call recordings and one officer’s body-worn camera footage, in response to Calhoun’s family, which held a news conference Friday asking for transparency during the investigation. The family’s attorney, Mawuli Davis, said Calhoun was trying to protect his home from burglars and that officers did not announce themselves when they arrived at the scene.
The incident began when Clayton police received multiple 911 calls about a man with a gun moving suspiciously around homes on Jenni Circle just before 5:30 a.m., the department said in the release. Around the same time police arrived, a 911 caller reported hearing a shot fired in the neighborhood. At that point, Clayton police said their officers followed department procedure and took out their own rifles.
In the pre-dawn hour, under a cold rain, responding officers searched for the armed man among the homes in the neighborhood, police said. They first saw him moving through yards and the street at 5:33 a.m., then saw him lying in the grass with a long gun at 5:38 a.m., according to the release. Officers then saw the man move behind a white truck, pointing his gun at houses, before moving to the street, where he was seen sitting and lying down around 5:50 a.m., police said.
Officials said the officers had two points of observation where they could see the man pointing his long gun at one of the officers. In response, one of the officers fired his rifle, hitting the suspect at 5:52 a.m., the news release said.
Officers rendered first aid until the fire department arrived and took over at 6:01 a.m. Shortly after, Calhoun was pronounced dead.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Davis, the Calhoun family’s lawyer, questioned the way police approached the scene. He said officers never announced themselves as law enforcement and did not arrive with lights or sirens on.
“When you’re concerned that there’s a burglar that is approaching your home, you don’t know who’s who and what’s what. It’s a confusing time,” Davis said last week.
The bodycam footage released Monday was taken from an officer standing back in support of the officer who fired the fatal shot. It does not show the suspect or any attempts by police to communicate with him as the two officers stand behind a house for cover. The news release does not say if officers tried to talk with Calhoun before shooting him.
In the footage, the officer wearing the camera says to the officer in front of him, “If he’s pointing, light his ass up.”
Moments later, the officer with the rifle fires a single shot, then begins to yell at the man, “Put the (expletive) gun down!”
Officers then approach the man from multiple directions, telling him to turn onto his stomach so he can be detained. The frame showing Calhoun lying in the street is censored, but the video is edited to point out a shotgun and two spent shells on the ground near him.
On Friday, Calhoun’s family detailed multiple factors to explain why he was lying in the street with a shotgun. Calhoun’s wife, Sheryl Calhoun, said someone tossed a brick through their back window in February in what they believed was an attempted burglary. Police confirmed in their news release that an act of vandalism had been reported at the couple’s home Feb. 7.
The morning Charles Calhoun was shot, Sheryl said her husband called her while she was staying with her mother in Atlanta to tell her that he believed someone was trying to break in again. According to police, Charles Calhoun did not place a call to 911 that morning.
Sheryl also explained that Charles was a COVID-19 survivor who suffered from lingering health issues. He had difficulty walking and was prone to falls because he was so unsteady on his feet, she said. According to Davis, the Calhoun family believes Charles fell and was using the shotgun to help pull himself up from the ground. Multiple 911 callers described a man staggering in the neighborhood with a gun.
Bodycam footage shows the several minutes as officers tried to save Charles Calhoun’s life after he was shot, applying pressure to his wound and guiding his breathing. As they treated Calhoun, one of the officers could clearly be heard saying, “Hey, none of y’all talk about what happened, OK?”
In response to requests from the AJC, Clayton police said the footage from the lone officer’s bodycam was the only video they would release. A police spokesperson said they were not sure if any other footage exists that shows the suspect’s movements before he was shot. If any does exist, the spokesperson said, it will be turned over to the GBI and not released until the state agency has completed its investigation.
“It is always tragic when an officer has to use force. This incident occurred rapidly, with limited information, in poor lighting conditions, and in heavy rain. Clayton County Police SWAT was not utilized in this incident as it unfolded so quickly,” police said in Monday’s news release, adding that the department “is responsive to community concerns and will review the entire incident and report their findings as they become available.”
Though the 30-minute video contains multiple 911 calls and bodycam footage, it is not clear if it will satisfy any of the family’s questions about the shooting. Davis admonished police for publicly releasing the video before reviewing it with Calhoun’s family members.
“The family of Charles Calhoun had his funeral services on Saturday and they continue to grieve this horrific loss,” Davis said in a statement. “They have not been emotionally and psychologically prepared to view the video that was released to the public without their knowledge. It is unfortunate that the Clayton County Police Department elected to release this information without arranging to meet with the family first.”
Davis added that the family would review the video and release a public statement “in the coming days,” and thanked the community for its support.
— Staff writers Matt Bruce, Rosana Hughes and Shaddi Abusaid contributed to this article.
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