Trooper shooting| Patrol car camera shows chase, shooting

The entire chase, shooting and attempted  getaway were all captured on the dash video in trooper Chadwick LeCroy's patrol car.

In all capital letters and with unemotional detail, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent wrote in an affidavit of the final moments of LeCroy’s life and the capture of the 30-year-old man charged with  killing him.

Gregory Favors, the man charged with fatally shooting LeCroy,  is being held without bond in the Fulton County Jail, where he has been many times before.

Favors has a lengthy criminal record that dates back 11 years, and includes 18 previous arrests in Fulton County for non-violent crimes. Fulton Chief Judge Cynthia Wright said the judges were "saddened" by the  shooting. " The Court is currently reviewing information related to the alleged suspect, Gregory Favors and his history as a defendant in Atlanta Judicial Circuit," Wright said in a statement.

“What we know at this point is that the defendant was before a magistrate on Dec. 13, 2010... Superior Court Pretrial Services recommend that Favors not be released."

The night LeCroy was shot, Monday, Favors was free on bond, but facing felony charges of  criminal attempt to enter an auto, possession of tools for the commission of a crime, cocaine possession, and two counts of obstructing a police officer.

Favors was supposed to have been in court at 9 a.m. that Monday to enter a plea to those charges.

He didn’t show up.

And 14 hours later LeCroy pulled up behind Favors’ black Mazda 6 in the area of Bolton Road and James Jackson Parkway, and turned on his blue lights for a traffic stop because one of the Mazda’s taillights was out.

That automatically activated the dash camera in LeCroy’s patrol car and it began recording. Some of the images the camera captured are detailed in an affidavit obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

According to the affidavit signed by GBI agent A.B. Johnston, the Mazda initially pulled over but  it sped off as LeCroy walked to the driver’s side.

“Trooper LeCroy initiated a chase of the vehicle,” the affidavit said. “The chase ended when the driver crashed into a brick mailbox on St. Paul Avenue.”

The eight-mile chase began just outside I-285 and went toward  downtown Atlanta.

The camera recorded LeCroy walking up to the car again after the crash; first toward the driver’s side, then to the rear and finally to the passenger's side.

“The video showed the driver leaning over to the passenger side of the vehicle,” Johnston wrote in the affidavit. “The driver then leaned out of the passenger side window and fired a handgun at Trooper LeCroy.

GBI Director Vernon Keenan said Favors fired three times and one of those shots hit the 38-year-old Marietta father and husband in the neck.

The video showed the driver getting out of the Mazda on the passenger side with a gun in his hand.

Favors allegedly then tried to move the mailbox that had disabled his car but eventually gave up.

"The driver then entered the driver's area of the vehicle [Mazda 6] from the driver's side window," Favors wrote. "The driver entered the vehicle several times and appeared to be retrieving some items from the interior of the Mazda 6. The driver threw what appeared to be a bottle which had been retrieved from the interior of the vehicle. Review of the video shows that there is only one person in the Mazda."

He then got into LeCroy's marked patrol car and drove off  back toward the starting point.

Johnston wrote. “The emergency equipment to include the lights, siren and video recorder were still active on the patrol unit," Johnston wrote. "The driver left the scene of the shooting, leaving Trooper LeCroy on the ground near the passenger’s side of the Mazda 6.”

LeCroy's State Patrol car was abandoned on Gun Club Road, about seven miles from the shooting.

A bulletin was posted and soon after Atlanta police officers  Eugene Johnson and Andi Cameron, working in plain clothes and driving an unmarked car, saw Favors walking  on Hollywood Road about a half mile from where the patrol car was left. He matched the description that the person wanted for shooting LeCroy was a large man – 250 pounds -- wearing a “puffy” white coat, according to police. He also had the keys to a Mazda.

An APD spokesman said Favors ran when Johnson and Cameron approached him, tossing a gun onto the top of an apartment building as he went by. There was a brief struggled and Favors was taken to APD headquarters where he waived his Miranda rights, the right to refuse to answer questions.

Meanwhile, witnesses had led officers to an apartment building where they found a Smith & Wesson 9 mm semi-automatic handgun on the roof. LeCroy was shot with a 9 mm, according to his autopsy. Investigators also found three spent 9 mm casings near the abandoned Mazda and where LeCroy fell to the ground.

Other witnesses told investigators they saw Favors driving the State Patrol cruiser.

The affidavit doesn't say if Favors admitted to the shooting or offered any information about the traffic stop.