[Editors's note: This story was published July 22, 2008.]
On the heels of last week's murder indictment of a former police officer who shot and killed a fleeing suspect, DeKalb County prosecutors are taking a new look at other shootings by officers, including the 2003 slaying of a suspect on his mother's front steps.
Loretta Luke said Monday that agents of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation recently staged a nighttime re-enactment of the shooting of her son, Stanley Bates, at her home off Candler Road south of Decatur.
DeKalb police Officer Alexander Brown shot Bates, 35, just outside Luke's front door on Feb. 2, 2003.
Bates was holding a knife, but a police review board concluded he was too far away from Brown and a second officer to justify the shooting. Brown lost his job, but the firing was rescinded in a deal in which he resigned.
The office of then-District Attorney J. Tom Morgan declined to prosecute Brown. The case was re-opened recently by DeKalb's current DA, Gwen Keyes Fleming, her office revealed Monday in response to an inquiry from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Don Geary also said Keyes Fleming has adopted a policy of having a grand jury review every police shooting case, regardless of whether prosecutors believe officers violated any law.
Keyes Fleming last week announced a grand jury indictment of former Officer Torrey Thompson in the slaying of 21-year-old Lorenzo Matthews on Sept. 12, 2006. Thompson faces a felony murder charge and possible life sentence.
A police review board found Matthews was unarmed and not a threat to Thompson. Thompson's lawyer said last week the officer reasonably believed the suspect, fleeing an armed robbery scene, was turning to fire at him.
Thompson was the only DeKalb officer targeted for prosecution by a special grand jury, which spent a year reviewing a rash of police shootings in DeKalb in 2006. The review included 12 slayings of suspects by officers of the county police force.
Following the special grand jury's work on 2006 cases, Keyes Fleming decided to present to regularly meeting grand juries information on all the other shootings by officers --- both fatal and nonfatal --- that took place after she took office in 2005.
According to a police database of use-of-force cases, shots fired by DeKalb officers killed one suspect and injured three in 2005. Police shootings killed one suspect and injured five in 2007. There has been one fatal shooting by DeKalb police in 2008 and no other injuries, according to a department list compiled in late spring.
Geary said presentations to grand jurors have begun, and authorities are "about halfway through 2007." No findings have been announced.
Grand juries meet for two months. A report from the panel that met in May and June should be made public soon.
Asked about the Bates case from 2003, Geary said the review also includes a few cases from prior years.
He said the Bates case was reopened at his mother's request but did not say why other cases were selected.
Geary said grand jurors will be asked to determine whether they believe a shooting was justified. If a shooting is deemed unjustified, a separate decision could be made on whether an officer should be prosecuted.
Luke said she still hopes Brown will be prosecuted. Seven or eight GBI employees marked off locations around her house and took measurements about six weeks ago, she said.
"They did a pretty thorough job, it looked like to me, and I was pleased, " she said.
Luke said a GBI representative told her about three weeks ago that agents needed to interview Brown and one other witness and then would turn over their findings to Keyes Fleming.
Luke won a civil judgment of $7 million against Brown last year when the former officer failed to appear in court to oppose her wrongful death lawsuit. His contact information was not available Monday. An attorney who represented him during his resignation negotiations said he does not know where Brown lives.
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