Arrest warrants have been issued for five Henry County police officers indicted on murder charges Friday, with orders for the officers to turn themselves in by 5 p.m. Tuesday, officials said.
The officers are each being charged with multiple counts, including malice murder, related to the death of 24-year-old Fernando Rodriguez while he was in police custody in 2019, Henry Assistant District Attorney Megan Matteucci said. Once they turn themselves in, each officer will be held on $100,000 bond.
The five officers named in Friday’s indictment are Robert Butera and Quinton Phillips, who worked with the Henry County Police Department, and Hampton police officers Mason Lewis, Marcus Stroud and Gregory Bowlden, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Rodriguez was seen walking naked in the road outside of Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton after the Imagine Music Festival in 2019. During the officers’ confrontation with Rodriguez, he was stunned more than a dozen times with Tasers and pressed into the ground even after he became unresponsive, Matteucci said.
Rodriguez’s family settled a lawsuit with the Hampton Police Department for $3 million earlier this year, the AJC reported. The family also pursued charges against the Henry Police Department.
None of the officers had turned themselves in as of Monday evening.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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