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Undercover officers with the Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression (NCIS) team fatally shot Jonathan Ayers, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Ga., Sept. 1. Police fired shots at the pastor's fleeing car after trying to question him. Ayers reportedly said before he died at Stephens County Hospital that he didn't know who shot him but he thought they were trying to rob him.

According to court documents, officers wanted to question Pastor Ayers after seeing him talking to and exchanging money with a known drug dealer and suspected prostitute. The counterclaim says Ayers had been ministering to the woman and trying to help her turn her life around and gave her money to help her pay her rent.

Harrison claims that whether or not Ayers knew he was a police officer, his reckless behavior while fleeing justified the use of deadly force in self defense. Ayers’ widow claims the fatal shot was fired after her husband was heading out of the parking lot and away from the officers.

Three Georgia law enforcement officials have appealed a judge’s ruling that they must stand trial to defend themselves against misconduct alleged in a lawsuit stemming from the fatal shooting of a Southern Baptist minister in a botched drug-sting investigation in 2009.

The undercover officers wanted to question Ayers about what they had just seen, he said. "They approached the vehicle. They were in plain clothes. They identified themselves as police officers, which civilian witnesses say happened. They also had badges around their necks." http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/04/georgia.pastor.shot/index.html?eref=ib_us#cnnSTCVideo

Following an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, a grand jury determined in December 2009 that the use of deadly force was justified in the incident and that no criminal charges should be filed.

Deputy Sheriff Billy Shane Harrison and Sheriffs Randy Shirley and Joey Terrell filed an appeal June 13 asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Gainesville, Ga., to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed by the widow of Jonathan Ayers, the 28-year-old pastor of Shoals Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Ga., fatally shot by Harrison in a gas-station parking lot in nearby Toccoa on Sept. 1, 2009.

Harrison claims he had reason to believe that he and a fellow officer were endangered [ah and there is that magic I can do anything buzzword again, thank you renquist] when Ayers drove toward them as they approached his car to question him about being spotted moments before with a woman who had sold drugs to a detective and was waiting for her dealer to deliver more.

Ayers claims her lawsuit that the GBI didn’t talk to witnesses who report a different version of what happened than the one put forward by the police.

https://baptistnews.com/ministry/people/item/7608-police-defend-killing-of-baptist-pastor#sthash.2XG5UGq9.dpuf

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Jury awards widow $2.3 million in pastor’s wrongful death suit
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014 | Filed in: News


A federal jury awarded more than $2.3 million Thursday afternoon to the family of a Toccoa pastor shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy.

Jonathan Ayers, 28, was shot Sept. 1, 2009, in the parking lot of a Toccoa convenience store after inadvertently stepping into an undercover drug investigation. Ayers was the minister at Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia at the time of his death.

In December 2009, a grand jury decided the shooting was justified. Then in March 2010, Ayers’ widow, Abigail Ayers, filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging excessive use of deadly force, assault, battery and false arrest against Deputy Billy Shane Harrison.
Minister's death leaves grief, questions photo
Pastor Jonathan Paul Ayers, 28, right, and wife Abby are seen in an undated family photo provided by Matt Carpenter. Ayers, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, was killed by drug task-force agents Sept. 1, 2009 during a probe that ended in gunfire at a Toccoa gas station.

In causing Jonathan Ayers’ death, the defendant Harrison “intentionally committed acts that violated Jonathan Ayers’ constitutional right not to be subjected to excessive or unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer,” the jury ruled in its verdict, obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The jury awarded a total amount of $2,305,352, federal court documents show.

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ORIGINAL: MrRodgers

See how drugs are a menace to society ? Oh, sorry. See how drug enforcement is a menace to society. Plus, as usual, no big deal...the taxpayers will pay the judgement.