Georgia Pastor Killed in Botched Drug Bust

Reason ^ | 3 September, 2009 | Radley Balko

[marktwain]

Developing story in Georgia, where church pastor Jonathan Ayers was shot and killed by undercover narcotics officers during a botched drug sting on Tuesday afternoon. Ayers was not the target of the investigation.

Police were apparently after a woman Ayers had dropped off just prior to stopping at the convenience store where police confronted him. Surveillance video shows a black SUV pulling up to the store, and plain-clothes officers jumping out with their guns drawn before the vehicle has stopped. Ayers' car then backs into the picture, and the officers fire into his car as he drives off. Ayers was shot in the liver, crashed his car a short distance later, and died at the hospital from the bullet wound.

A police spokesperson says the officers identified themselves as they got out of the truck, though even if they did, it isn't difficult to see how someone in Ayers' position might panic when confronted with armed, plain-clothes men who'd just jumped from a black SUV. He had also just returned from getting money from the store's ATM. There were no drugs in Ayers' car.

Ayers leaves behind a wife who is four months pregnant.

[muawiyah]

Both cops should simply commit seppuku now. There's simply no excuse for what they did. No warrant. Not in hot pursuit. They ended up shooting an unarmed ordinary citizen just out on his own doing legal stuff.

No way either of these guys can ever work as a cop again ~ not and be trusted ~ and certainly no one wants to trust his business to people who can't think under pressure.