A DeKalb County jury began deliberating Thursday on whether William Woodard murdered police officers Eric Barker and Ricky Bryant or whether he shot them in self defense because he feared for his own life.
Woodard, 34, admits he shot Barker and Bryan on Jan. 16, 2008, at the Glenwood Gardens Apartments, where the two officers were working extra jobs that night. Jurors must determine why he shot them, which is the issue in this trial.
If convicted of murder, Woodard could be sentenced to death.
According to testimony, Woodard and two other men were at the apartment complex to buy beer at a “shot house,” an apartment where alcohol is sold illegally outside of normal store hours. Barker and Bryant approached them and asked for identification just moments after they got into the car to leave.
Woodard didn’t have an ID so he was ordered out of the car. Moments later there were a series of shots — four from Bryant and 10 from Woodard, according to testimony.
District Attorney Robert James told the jury Woodard shot and killed Baker, 33, and Bryant, 26, because he did not want to go back to prison. Woodard was a three-time convicted felon who could be sentenced to life without parole if convicted a fourth time, and he had a gun.
But Woodard testified earlier this week that he shot the two officers because they were beating him and threatening him. The defense attorneys claimed Barker was using his baton and Bryant had fired his weapon while Woodard lay curled up on the asphalt. Woodard then pulled out his own gun and fired.
Defense attorney Dwight Thomas called the two officers “bullies with badges” who spent many of their hours working off-duty “shaking down the dope boys.”
“There was no malice or forethought,” Thomas said of Woodard. “There was no thought in this young man’s mind ‘I want to kill a police officer.’ It’s self defense, completely.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” James said, responding to suggestions that the officers were bullying Woodard. “These officers were not bullies with badges, thugs with authority. They were heroes.”
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