A STATE trooper was fired and charged with murder Friday after fatally shooting a man who attempted to flee a traffic stop.
Julian Edward Roosevelt Lewis, a 60-year-old black man, was being pursued by the Georgia trooper because of a burned-out tail light and was shot almost immediately after the officer was able to stop him, a family attorney said.
The president of Georgia’s NAACP chapter said Lewis’ death is just another example of a black man being targeted and killed by a white police officer.
His death comes at a time when widespread protests have erupted across the US calling for police reform, sparked by the deaths of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and other black Americans at the hands of law enforcement.
The trooper, 27-year-old Jacob Gordon Thompson, was arrested on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault on Friday, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
In a press release, the GBI stated that preliminary information suggests Lewis led Thompson on a brief chase on August 7 before the trooper initiated a technique to get him to pull over by forcing his car into a ditch.
The officer then fired one round with his gun. Lewis was pronounced dead at the scene.
Thompson’s attorney Keith Barber told ABC that he thinks he is a “fine trooper,” and believes after evidence is heard, he’ll “be exonerated in this case.”
Georgia NAACP President Rev James Woodall, however, believes the shooting was just another incident of racial profiling by police, according to ABC.
“No one should have to bury a loved one simply because of a busted tail light,” Woodall said.
“This was a case of racial profiling. We are not necessarily happy right now. Yes, the man was arrested, but we’re done dying.”
The Lewis family attorney, Francys Johnson, said she believes an invsetigation will reveal the shooting to be unlawful.
“Mr. Lewis never got out of the vehicle and the investigation will show that, mere seconds after the crash, he was shot to death, shot in the face and killed,” she said.
