An update in the case of elderly no-knock warrant casualty Kathryn Johnston:
Prosecutors intend to seek murder charges against three Atlanta police officers involved in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman in her home, according to a letter sent to an attorney for one of the officers.Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard sent a letter that said he will ask a grand jury on Feb. 26 to deliver a murder indictment against officers Gregg Junnier, J.R. Smith and Arthur Tesler, said Rand Csehy, Junnier's attorney.
Kathryn Johnston died and three officers were wounded in the Nov. 21 shootout when police used a no-knock warrant to search for drugs in Johnston's northwest Atlanta home.
When officers entered her home without first announcing their presence, police say Johnston fired a handgun and officers returned fire, killing her. An autopsy concluded she was shot five or six times.
Narcotics officers said an informant had claimed there was cocaine in the home, but none was found.
A copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Press said that prosecutors would ask the grand jury to indict Junnier on charges of felony murder, as well as counts of violation of oath, burglary, criminal solicitation, aggravated assault and false imprisonment.
I don't know how they'll go about making the charges stick, but I am glad the attempt is being made to hold these officers accountable. After all, she was just sitting alone in her house not bothering a soul, and now she's dead as a doornail at the hands of police. None of us may feel bad for people whose behaviors lead them into unfortunate and inevitable interactions with law enforcement, but I'm not up to including as risky behavior sitting at home minding my own business.
***
Previous postings:
Playing Dirty
Atlanta No-Knock Death
Deadly Warrant II
The Kathryn Johnston Thanksgiving Open-House Thread
Death Warrant
I think they make the charges stick by bringing in the informant to testify that the officers came to him after the fact and asked him to then "inform" on that address.
Posted by: kbiel at February 7, 2007 10:36 PMWhere would the false imprisonment come in do you think?
Posted by: Donnah at February 7, 2007 10:41 PMThe informant , they tried to 'take him for a ride' if I recall correctly.
Posted by: Gmac at February 8, 2007 05:14 AMi don't see how they can be charged with murder, my understanding was that they had a lawful warrant... now if the warrant was obtained under false pretenses, then there absolutely should be charges associated but, im willing to bet that some of the officers involved in serving the warrant had nothing to do with obtaining the warrant and were just doing their job, the job of serving a lawful warrant.
Posted by: chris at February 10, 2007 06:37 PM