Posted on 09/05/2009 7:35:34 AM PDT by bamahead
LAVONIA, Ga. (ABP) -- Members of a Southern Baptist church in Northeast Georgia want answers about the police-shooting death of their 29-year-old pastor in a drug-sting operation gone wrong.
Jonathan Ayers, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Ga., died during the night of Sept. 1, hours after being shot by undercover police officers outside a gas station where he had just gotten money from an ATM machine.
The Stephens County Sheriff's Office initially identified the shooting victim as a suspect involved in a drug transaction. Later officials clarified that drug enforcement agents were not investigating Ayers, but a woman who was riding in his car whom he had dropped off moments earlier.
Officials said the officers didn't know who Ayers was and wanted to talk to him. They were in plain clothes, but they claim they wore badges around their necks and identified themselves as police when they asked him to open his car door. Instead, they say, Ayers put the car in reverse and fled, striking one officer and causing minor injuries.
Police fired at the fleeing vehicle. One bullet struck Ayers in the abdomen. He managed to drive away but crashed about a half mile away. Police found him conscious and alert, but he died several hours later after surgery.
Police said after striking the officer, Ayers drove his car toward another officer in a "threatening manner." Friends and family believe Ayers thought the men were going to rob him and that he got scared and tried to run away.
Police have not identified the woman, who is charged with selling cocaine. Ayers' sister, Rebecca Floyd, said her younger brother was known to help strangers.
"I could bet my life on it that he did not know her," Floyd told television station WYFF News 4. "I could bet my life on it, because that's the kind of person he was. He was a good Christian man…. His goal was to lead souls to Christ."
Roger Shirley, a member of Shoal Creek, told the Anderson, S.C., Independent Mail that Ayers had led 18 people to Christ and baptized 12 in the little more than a year since he became pastor of the struggling congregation, founded in 1789. Shirley said he believed the pastor was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ayers had recently started a blog, where he described having "three loves in my life: Jesus Christ, my wife, Abby, and the Church." The couple's first baby is due in February.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting. The officers involved are on administrative leave with pay.
Ayers' brother-in-law, Matt Carpenter, told AccessNorthGa.com that the family was first informed Ayers died in a traffic accident, and then that he had been shot. Hours later, they learned he died in an officer-involved shooting.
A surveillance video shows Ayers calmly entering the store a few minutes before the shooting. A black Cadillac Escalade SUV pulls up next to a gas pump beside his car. A man jumps out before it comes to a complete stop. Ayers attempts to drive away, as officers chase after and fire shots at the car.
Ayers' funeral service is scheduled at 2 p.m., Friday, Sept. 4, at Shoal Creek Baptist Church.
Remind me never to wear a cap in a red car!!!!!
a very small town...did these numbnuts not know who was in their sights?
geez...
they are gonna pay on this one...the county taxpayers that is
every cop now thinks he’s a snake eater just cause he has some cool gear
If somebody want to arrest me, they better be in uniform and coming out of an official police car. If some random thug draws a weapon on me, I will defend myself as best I can.
D*mn, I’m getting old.
There was a time in the eighties or early nineties when some of the police catalogs I was getting were selling T-shirts like "Don't run, you'll only die tired -sniper", now I liked my 1980s "Airborne, Death from Above" T-shirts but I sure did not like seeing civilians working in law enforcement taking that kind of mentality.
Another innocent murdered by the drug warriors.
All I’m going to say Travis is a few examples needs to be made.
bttt
So you think a this pastor was really a drug dealer huh, despite him not having any drugs on him? Good thinking. /<sarcasm
Plain clothes cops jumping out of a Cadillac Escalade, the vehicle of choice for thugs everywhere, indeed the cops probably seized it from a drug dealer. They had their guns drawn even though the pastor had committed no crime. He had just used the ATM and I am sure he thought he was being robbed. Have you seen the video? These cops belong in prison. Certainly they are going to hell for killing an innocent pastor.
I would rather face the regular sort of gangbangers than the cops.
With the regular kind of gangbangers, there are usually manageable consequences after the event.
The cops can rough you up, kill your dog, feel up your womenfolk, tear your house up, confiscate your property and live to do it another day to somebody else.
Curious that you would characterize this as an accident.
Excellent idea.
The answer to all of these questions is “because it’s a lot more fun to kick some ass”.
I don’t know the hearts of these men, so given the facts they have presented in the article, I interpret them as “humanly” as possible. By that interpretation, the police truly felt they were in danger, and fired in self-defense.
If their police force had a “no shooting at cars” rule, they would be guilty of breaking that rule. If they didn’t, and instead had a rule that they were allowed to shoot at a fleeing car if they thought they were in danger, we certainly could interpret what we see on the tape as allowing them to think they were in danger.
I don’t believe the police officer who wasn’t run over was shooting at the guy simply because he felt like killing an innocent bystander.
So, if we assume they didn’t mean to kill an innocent, that would classify the shooting as an “accident”, the same way that a police officer shooting a child with a toy gun that looks real could be considered an “accident”.
Difference is, in this case, he'd be right.
I came to this thread late, but I have to say that your summerization of the situation is excellent.
This logic is frequently fatal when dealing with the largest, best equipped, best financed, best paid street gang in America.
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