A 19-year-old South Fulton man died from gunshot wounds to the back after an alleged altercation Wednesday night with a Union City police officer, the Fulton County Medical Examiner said Friday.
Union City police said Ariston Waiters was shot after tussling with an officer, who was responding to a call of a fight in progress on Hickory Lane.
But a lawyer representing the victim's family said witnesses tell a different story.
"The investigation that began Wednesday night ... was an attempt to cover up what really happened," said attorney Mawuli Mel Davis. "One eyewitness confirmed to us that her statement [to police] was torn up."
The GBI, at the request of Union City police, is the sole agency investigating the shooting.
"Agents have talked to everyone still near the scene that night and will interview any others who claim to have pertinent information," GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.
Davis said two witnesses have yet to speak the GBI, but added he was personally escorting them to the agency's headquarters Friday afternoon so they can give their statement.
The AJC has reached out to Union City's mayor and police chief but has not yet received a response.
"We are angry and we want to know why Union City police have not contacted us," Waiters' godmother, Monique VanDross, said at a late-morning news conference. "This is not going to rest until we get justice."
Davis said there was "never a face-to-face fight or discussion" between Waiters and the officer, as police have alleged. Waiters ran when he saw police arrive on the scene, Davis said, but he did not engage the officer, whose identity has not been released.
Although there was some talk that Waiters had an outstanding warrant for his arrest, Bankhead said agents don't believe there was one.
So why did Waiters flee?
"Young black men don't trust the police," said former Atlanta City Councilman Derrick Boazman, representing Waiters' family. "It's a normal reaction for them to run when they see the cops."
Witness Alan Turner, 20, said the fight that precipitated the shooting started between two middle school girls and escalated as adults tried to break up the scrum.
Two shots were fired into the air to break up the fight just before police arrived, Turner told the AJC. He said he watched the Union City officer follow Waiters behind a building and "less than a minute later I heard two shots."
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