In 2016, a black man was shot and killed by a white officer in Atlanta. A police dash camera video released earlier this week shows the story.
The officer, James Burns, claims that the car Deravis Caine Rogers was driving was accelerating towards him and he feared for his life. Burns shot and killed the 22-year-old in the head. Burns was responding to a suspicious person call at an apartment complex. Rogers was leaving the complex and the police dashcam shows Burns turning on his lights and trying to block Rogers from leaving the complex. Rogers swerved his car around him and that is when the gunshot is heard on the video.
Burns had no way to identify Rogers as the suspicious person and Rogers had not tried to hit the officer’s vehicle.
Shean Williams, the family’s attorney from The Cochran Firm, said: “It’s not fair, it’s not right and it’s not just that this family and other families who had issues and lost loved ones to the police department of this city have not ever gotten justice for those people and those loved ones.”
Williams is committed to finding justice for the family and calls for the city to take responsibility for injustices done by the Atlanta police. Prosecutors have charged Burns with murder but the case was dropped and has since been refiled. Williams is pursuing the case with vigor to ensure it goes before a jury and ends in a conviction.
Read full news articles about the Deravix Caine Rogers case at these sources:
SF Gate
MSN