A 19-year-old shot in the back. A 35-year-old unarmed mother shot through the windshield of her car. More than 50 Georgians shot at their own or family member's home.
These are just three of the stories that have emerged from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's year-long examination of police shootings in Georgia, done in collaboration with Channel 2 Action News: "Over the Line."
Their work was named a winner of the 2015 Investigative Reporters & Editors Awards, recognizing "the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year," the IRE announced Thursday.
Click here and you can read the stories in full and explore the cases in our exclusive online database of police shootings in Georgia since 2010 — the only comprehensive compilation of such shootings in the state.
The "Over the Line" series was awarded for innovation in investigative journalism by the IRE, a nonprofit group which supports investigative reporting.
"The team of journalists was able to encourage reluctant police, prosecutors and even grand jurors to go on the record, both in print and on camera, to break the code of silence which had kept serious issues about questionable shootings concealed from the public," the judges said in honoring the series.
At the beginning of 2015, no one in Georgia could say how many people were killed by police each year. Reporters from the AJC and Channel 2 Action News set out to answer that question, and learn who, how and why civilians are killed by police, and how the legal system treats these cases.
Reporters compiled six years of fatal police shooting cases from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and police departments throughout the state to assemble the most comprehensive database of shooting cases ever assembled in Georgia.
"(The series') revelations led to a reform in Georgia’s laws this spring, a revocation of the unique privileges granted to police to sit inside a grand jury room during all proceedings involving them," the judges said.
The "Over the Line" series has been previously distinguished by the Atlanta Press Club and the Columbia Journalism Review.
The Austin-American Statesman, a sibling of the AJC, was also honored by the IRE's 2015 awards.
"Missed Signs, Fatal Consequences," investigating the state's Child Protective Services, was honored for innovation in investigative journalism as "a powerful indictment of a critical state agency," the judges said.
