The family of an unarmed man shot to death by a Smyrna policeman in March wants to meet with the prosecutor before a civil grand jury is convened.
Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds says that this grand jury will likely be convened in July. Nicholas Thomas, 23, was behind the wheel of a car at the Goodyear store where he worked when an officer who was part of a group serving warrants opened fire on him, killing him.
Mawuli Davis, the attorney for Thomas's family, says it would be the decent thing to do to allow Thomas's relatives to see the surveillance video from outside the store and digest it before it is shown to the civil grand jury. A civil grand jury can recommend whether a case should be heard by a criminal grand jury, and family members can be allowed to sit in on the civil grand jury's presentment. Davis says it is also important because Smyrna Police Sgt. Kenneth Owens, the only officer who opened fire, claimed that he believed he was in mortal danger.
"He said he was in fear of his life, even though he was not," said attorney Mawuli Mel Davis. "He shot into the side of the car. Unless a car can travel sideways, I don't know how you can be in fear of your life."
Three shots were fired. Thomas's mother, Felicia Thomas, says the autopsy showed that her son was shot in his armpit--indicating that his hands were up.
On Wednesday's visit to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the family was told that they could not see the video, as D. A. Reynolds had instructed them not to show it.
Reynolds' office issued a statement saying, "We are reviewing the investigations conducted by Cobb Police and the GBI. We cannot release any evidence during a pending investigation."
Felicia Thomas is displeased with the GBI investigation. The family lobbied hard to get the agency to step in and conduct the shooting probe, in hopes of an impartial investigation. Now, she accuses them of "babysitting" the investigation that Cobb County launched, instead of doing their own more thorough investigation, including looking at the history and medical records of the policeman who opened fire on her son. Cobb County police officers were with Smyrna police officers serving the misdemeanor warrants on Thomas at the Goodyear.
"They didn't even go out and interview--they just watched tapes," says Thomas. "That's babysitting. They didn't even go out and investigate. And some of the witnesses that we know of, they haven't even spoke to."
Thomas is also appalled that her son's shooter was back at work at the police agency, before the investigation was complete.
"That's a spit in your face right there," she says.
The Marietta Daily Journal reported in May that Owens had returned to work in "an administrative role."
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