Sounds like an awful stiff price to pay for dropping a suspected druggie off at a store - didn’t know it carried the death penalty.
From what I have heard here locally, they were not in uniform. That got me wondering as well. But, the woman that was with this guy, and their connections, is not at all clear. There may be a whole lot more to this story.
A "drug sting" and no drugs were found? Yea right.
A grainy surveillance video from a nearby store shows two drug task-force agents emerge from a black SUV before Ayers’ small car backs up.
Before the car backs up?
The first part of the story is they shot him because he backed intoone trying todrive away.
If the viseo does show them firing before the car started to move these guys are toast..
This does sound fishy to me as well. There is every reason to consider that this pastor was helping the woman and when confronted by plainclothes men wielding handguns, he might have become afraid and ran. The gas station owner told Fox News Atlanta that he had no idea that the men were police. However, you just never know. It is a story worth following, although it may be one that is never followed up on.
When I first saw the video I thought the bad guys were in the Avalanche / Escalade. I don’t blame the kid for running.
They weren't in uniform.
This man was murdered in broad daylight for attempting to escape from two strange men with guns.
I agree.
A link to the video might help a few posters (but of course, the usual crowd can make up their minds without video OR reading the story:
http://www.ajc.com/video?bcpid=1659825399&bclid=1716449804&bctid=36838592001
I don't care how wrong the cop on the street is, I'm going to take it up (alive, unbeaten, maybe unarrested) with his boss, after the fact.
Better reporting including a video of the shooting of the pastor (left) HERE.
A northeast Georgia pastor has died after being shot by agents from a multi-county drug task force.
GBI spokesman John Bankhead said 28-year-old Jonathan Paul Ayers, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, was not the target of the sting operation but a woman in his car was under investigation.
The shooting occurred after Ayers dropped the woman off at a store in downtown Toccoa Tuesday afternoon.
Bankhead said agents approached Ayers for questioning but the pastor tried to avoid them, putting his car in reverse before he struck one of the agents.
Bankhead said an agent shot at the car and Ayers suffered a gunshot wound to the torso. The cause of his death was pending the results of an autopsy.
The woman was charged with cocaine possession and distribution.
Ayers’ brother-in-law Matt Carpenter talked with News Channel 7’s coverage partners at the “Independent Mail’ and said the pastor had nothing to do with drugs.
“Any question of his character, particularly involving something like drugs, is just ridiculous,” he said. Ayers’ wife is 4 months pregnant with their first child.
The ‘Independent Mail’ also published Ayers’ last blog entry. Before his last blog entry, Ayers had posted a two-part article on “Ten Things I Can’t Believe.”
His list began with this entry: “I can’t believe that Jesus would choose me. I never deserved it! I can’t believe that He would love me and want me!”
The list included this entry:
“I can’t believe that I am going to (be) a dad. … I want to apologize to the whole world because this kids going to be one messed up, Jesus loving, church going, Georgia fan if there has ever been one. I pray and hope that is at least for the first two things!”
Ayers’ funeral is planned for 2 p.m. Friday at Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia. Strickland Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. To read more on this story, click here.
Ayers used an ATM at a Shell convenience store around 2:30 p.m. and the officers, who were in plain clothes, jumped out of a moving vehicle as Ayers was backing out of the parking lot.
Jonathan Paul Ayers, 28, and his wife, Abby,
More info here: http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/090409/new_489412755.shtml
Trying to escape is a natural reaction in this situation. Alternatively, if the pastor had a CCW and drawn a weapon in fear for his life, he would have been shot down like a mad dog.
These idiot cops should never had been issued weapons. They should have stayed home watching COPS shows imagining they were real cops!
Condolences to this pastor’s family and congregation. I see no clear justification for this public execution of a citizen by plainclothes police.
It occurs to me that at some point officers involved in the “DRUG WAR” would ask themselves if it is justifiable to shoot and kill someone “not under investigation” after approaching him in plainclothes in an unmarked SUV at a gas station.
Perhaps they might consider a less dramatic and dangerous way of approaching people, like when they are walking out of the store, or after they have driven onto the road, and doing a felony stop. At least in this methods the victim would have been aware that it was cops after him and not just two thugs and a black SUV.
But hey, if “getting drugs off the streets” is more important than the life of a 28 year old pastor and father-to-be, then these “cops” behaved according to plan.