Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced that arrest warrants were issued Friday for the ex-Atlanta police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black motorist on June 22.
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He faces charges of felony murder, aggravated assault and violation of oath, the DA said.
Burns, a white officer fired by the department after the fatal June 22 shooting, told investigators that he shot at a vehicle which was “trying to run me over and kill me”. Howard said he will take the case to a grand jury early next month.
When Burns arrived on scene, he said he spotted Rogers.
This all started when an off-duty officer working security at this apartment complex called in for backup when he spotted a man breaking into a vehicle.
Burns told investigators in an interview a week after the shooting that he “didn’t know to block that particular auto”, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Upon arriving, Burns spotted the driver of a 2011 silver Ford Fusion turn on the headlights and start to drive away.
In the written report, investigators said to Burns, “Directly following the shot, you can be seen on the dash cam video of another responding officer’s patrol vehicle walking from behind your patrol vehicle toward the location where the vehicle you shot into had just passed”. The officer then jumped from his vehicle, yelled stop and shot through the passenger side window of the Ford as it drove away.
And then it was discovered Rogers was not even the suspected burglar to the call to which he was responding.
Burns told APD investigators that Rogers tried to run him over.
According to the officer, Rogers jumped into a auto and tried to drive away when he opened fire and shot Rogers in the head.
The following day, Atlanta police gave a press conference, providing the media with Burns’ version of the events. The auto driven by Rogers, who was unarmed, posed no threat to Burns, according to the DA’s statement.
The shooting was not captured on a dash cam but another officer’s dash cam recorded the aftermath, capturing Burns stepping from behind his patrol vehicle into the street where Rogers’ auto had just passed. “Neither was Rogers identified as the man the off-duty officer had previously reported”, the DA’s statement said.
Burns has declined interview requests.
Investigators say dash cam video tells a different story. Lance Lorusso, who is representing the fired officer, shared a statement with us late Friday afternoon.
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“The force the officer used was not reasonable nor was it necessary and that in essence steps outside our policies governing behaving in which an officer would deploy a weapon or discharge a weapon”, Pickard said. “During this time, just like any other person who is the focus of a criminal investigation, Officer Burns is entitled to a presumption of innocence”.
