A Fulton County grand jury indicted two former East Point police officers on charges that they murdered a young father by repeatedly shocking him with Tasers while he sat in a creek.
Former police Sgt. Marcus Eberhart and former Cpl. Howard Weems could face life in prison if they are convicted of murder in the death of 24-year-old Gregory Lewis Towns Jr.
The lawyer for Towns’ family said the criminal charges against Eberhart and Weems reflect a shift in public attitude toward officers who use excessive force.
“I’m proud of the District Attorney’s Office for pursuing charges,” attorney Chris Stewart said Tuesday. “They could have just let it go. These types of actions set a bigger example. They set it nationally. They set it for the state.”
The indictment comes as police use of deadly force, particularly against minorities, is debated across the nation, and as distrust of law enforcement seems to be is on the rise. Race was not raised in a lawsuit brought by the family of Towns.
Last month — after the Cobb County district attorney said he would not seek charges — the U.S. Attorneys Office in Atlanta announced it would investigate the death of an unarmed black man shot in the back as he tried to flee police in Smyrna earlier this year. And recently, a white campus police officer in Cincinnati was charged with murder for fatally shooting an unarmed black man during a routine traffic stop, and a white officer in North Charleston, S.C., was charged with murdering a black man who was running away from him.
“District attorneys, city councils can proactively stop this,” Stewart said about officers using deadly force “Showing officers when you take someone’s life so callously, there are repercussions. Not that you could be fired, but you could end up in jail.”
District Attorney Paul Howard did not comment beyond the details contained in a news release from his office announcing the indictment. Last summer, after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the East Point Police Department turned over its findings to Howard, the district attorney said he was waiting on a “crucial piece of evidence” before deciding if he would seek criminal charges. The reason for the delay was not immediately known.
Neither Eberhart nor Weems nor their attorneys could be reached for comment. Both testified before the grand jury.
The 10-count indictment charges both officers with felony murder, as well as involuntary manslaughter because they allegedly had no “intention” to kill Towns, reckless conduct, aggravated assault and violation of oath by a public officer.
The indictment provides sketchy details of the events leading up to Towns’ death, but there was far more information in the lawsuit Towns’ mother, Claudia Towns, brought on behalf of her grandson, who was 7 months old when his father died. East Point paid $1 million last November to resolve the case.
According to police records and the suit, the series of events that led to Towns’ death began when his live-in girlfriend reported to police a domestic dispute at the townhouse they shared.
Towns was leaving the property when police arrived. He ran.
But less than a mile away, officers caught up with the 281-pound man, who was lying on the ground and breathing hard.
Over the next half hour, Towns asked officers at least 10 times to be allowed to rest. He would get up, fall down, then get up again.
Eventually, Towns fell down an embankment into six inches of water. Weems wrote in his report he told Towns he would be Tased again if he did not get up and walk.
Both officers wrote in their reports that they used their Tasers in the “drive stun mode,” delivering 50,000 volts by pushing the prongs directly into Towns’ skin.
Logs showed Weems pulled the trigger on his device four times for a total of 27 seconds and Eberhart activated his Taser at least 10 times for a total of 47 seconds.
All the while, Towns’ hands were cuffed behind his back and the last few times he was sitting in creek water. The department’s policy says Tasers cannot be used on someone who is handcuffed or to prod someone.
A neighbor with a camera captured images of the officers bending over Towns, trying to revive him.
The Fulton County medical examiner said Towns’ death was a homicide due to hypertensive cardiovascular disease exacerbated by “electrical stimulation.”
Then-police Chief Woodrow Blue fired Weems, and Eberhart resigned in lieu of termination after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a report on Towns’ death. Four months after that, Blue abruptly resigned for personal reasons.
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