The family of an Atlanta church deacon whose death was ruled a homicide after a police officer shocked him with a stun gun has demanded that murder charges be brought.
An autopsy report ruled that 62-year-old Johnny Hollman’s death was a homicide, with his history of heart disease, as well as the electrical shock from the Taser, contributing to his death.
“Our position is that it was an unwarranted, unjustifiable assault that led to a death,” Hollman family lawyer Mawuli Davis said. “And in my book, that is murder.”
The fatal incident took place on 10 August, when Hollman was being arrested after a minor car crash. Authorities say that Officer Kiran Kimbrough stunned him with a Taser and handcuffed him because he refused to sign a ticket he had been given.
Body camera footage has been a point of contention in the case, as it has not been made publicly available, perhaps contributing to differing accounts of what happened from there on.
According to Mr Davis, who has watched the body camera footage, Hollman reached for the ticket and repeatedly agreed to sign it, but “the officer, ignoring his willingness to comply, does a leg sweep and takes him to the ground.”
“And Deacon Hollman is saying, ‘I can’t breathe. My asthma is acting up on me, I can’t breathe,’” he told NBC News.
A physical altercation allegedly ensued. Mr Davis told the outlet that at one point during the struggle, Officer Kimbrough “is on top” of Hollman and “strikes him with a closed fist.” He said he counted Hollman saying “I can’t breathe,” 16 times.
Minutes into the altercation, the officer used the stun gun, reports said. The medical examiner wrote earlier this week that, after looking at the footage, she believed that Hollman was “unresponsive from the time that the energy device (Taser) is deployed.”
“We believe that what we witnessed on that video is murder. It was an unjustifiable homicide,” the attorney told the outlet.
Arnitra Fallins, Hollman’s daughter, told NBC News that the footage was “disturbing,” adding that it “literally made me sick to my stomach” to watch.
She told the outlet, “I don’t want people to get distracted by what the APD and the City is putting out about him, about being combative, about being aggressive, that’s not in my daddy’s character. That’s not who he was and that’s not what he was presenting that night he was killed.”
Law enforcement tells a slightly different version of the story.
An August release from the Atlanta Police Department said: “The officer attempted to issue a traffic citation to the at-fault driver. However, the driver became agitated and uncooperative.”
The release added, “The officer attempted to take the driver into custody, but he resisted, and a struggle ensued.” That’s when a Taser was used, and a witness helped the officer place Hollman in handcuffs, officers explained.
“Once the driver was in handcuffs, the officer realized he was unresponsive and requested EMS to the scene,” the release said. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) was asked to look into the incident.
Officer Kimbrough was fired from the department earlier this week.
Regardless of the differing accounts, the footage in question will not be released until the investigation concludes, Atlanta police said last week. “It’s not a question of if it will be released,” Mr Davis said earlier this week. “It’s now a question of when and how soon.”
