Kathryn Johnston shooting
Encyclopedia
Kathryn Johnston was an elderly Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

 woman who was shot by undercover police officers in her home on Neal Street in northwest Atlanta on November 21, 2006, where she had lived for 17 years. Three officers had entered her home in what was later described as a 'botched' drug raid. Officers cut off burglar bars and broke down her door using a no-knock warrant. Police said Johnston fired at them and they fired in response; she fired one shot out the door over the officers' heads and they fired 39 shots, five or six of which hit her. None of the officers were injured by her gunfire, but Johnston was killed by the officers. Police injuries were later attributed to "friendly fire" from each others' weapons.

One of the officers planted marijuana in Johnston's house after the shooting. Later investigations found that the paperwork stating that drugs were present at Johnston's house, which had been the basis for the raid, had been falsified. The officers later admitted to having lied when they submitted cocaine as evidence claiming that they had bought it at Johnston's house. Three officers were tried for manslaughter and other charges surrounding falsification and were sentenced to ten, six, and five years respectively.

Shooting

The officers, dressed in plainclothes, approached the house at about seven in the evening. Officers Gary Smith, Gregg Junnier, and Arthur Tesler; who were wearing bulletproof vest
Bulletproof vest
A ballistic vest, bulletproof vest or bullet-resistant vest is an item of personal armor that helps absorb the impact from firearm-fired projectiles and shrapnel from explosions, and is worn on the torso...

s and carrying riot shield
Riot shield
Riot shields are lightweight protection devices deployed by police and some military organizations. Most are a clear polycarbonate, though some are constructed of light metals with a view hole. Riot shields are almost exclusively long enough to cover an average sized man from the top of the head to...

s when they entered the home, announced themselves after opening the door but before entering the house, according to police. Johnston fired a gun after police forced open the door. It was later determined that Johnston fired one shot from an old pistol, and none of the officers were hit by that bullet. The police officers fired a total of 39 shots, five or six of which hit Johnston. Police injuries sustained in the raid were due to friendly fire
Friendly fire
Friendly fire is inadvertent firing towards one's own or otherwise friendly forces while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire...

 and were not from Johnston's gun. The officers were hit in the arm, thigh, and shoulder respectively; they were treated at the hospital.

Prosecutors later said that Smith handcuffed Johnston as she was dying. Johnston was pronounced dead at the scene. Prosecutors accused one of the officers of planting three bags of marijuana in the house as an attempted cover-up after no drugs were found in the house. Smith later admitted to having planted the drugs. They had been found in an unrelated case earlier that day. Prosecutors also accused Smith of calling Alex White after the shooting and telling the informant to say he had bought crack cocaine
Crack cocaine
Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...

 at Johnston's house. According to court filings, before talking to the homicide detective, the three officers involved in the shooting got together to get their stories straight.
Johnston lived alone and had lived in that house for about 17 years. Her house was in a crime-ridden neighborhood in west Atlanta. People in the neighborhood speculated that the police had the wrong person, but police denied that they had had the wrong house. Neighbors and family said that Johnston kept a "rusty revolver" for self-defense; another elderly woman in her neighborhood had recently been raped, and drug dealing was common. In the year before her murder, Johnston had installed extra locks and burglar bars.

Warrant

As justification for the no-knock warrant, the Atlanta Police Department
Atlanta Police Department
The Atlanta Police Department is the law enforcement agency of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.The city shifted from its rural-based Marshal and Deputy Marshal model at the end of the 19th century. In 1873, the department was formed with 26 officers...

 initially claimed that the police were searching for drug dealers after a police informant
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...

 was said to have bought crack at Johnston's home. However, the informant later denied having bought drugs at her house, and suspicion about the incident sparked a federal and state investigation. In the affidavit police used to obtain a search warrant for Johnston's house, Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

 narcotics officers alleged their informant bought drugs inside Johnston's home earlier in the day from a man named "Sam", and that the home had video surveillance equipment justifying the no knock warrant
No knock warrant
In the US, a no knock warrant is a warrant issued by a judge that allows law enforcement officers to enter a property without immediate prior notification of the residents, such as by knocking or ringing a doorbell. In most cases, law enforcement will identify themselves just before they forcefully...

. In an interview with Atlanta television station WAGA
Waga
Waga is an isolated small town in Colombo District, Sri Lanka. Administrated by Seethawaka Pradeshiya Sabha , it is part of the Padukka Divisional Secretary's Division. The town can be reached on road from Colombo via A4 road, turning off at either Meepe near Padukka or at Kaluaggala near Hanwella...

 a few days after Johnston's shooting, the informant denied having gone to her house and said that after the shooting, police pressured him to lie and say that he had. The informant denied that he had ever been to Johnston's house. According to WSB-TV
WSB-TV
WSB-TV, virtual channel 2.1 , is the ABC affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship television station of Cox Enterprises and its Cox Media Group subsidiary...

 in Atlanta, Detective Junnier told the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

 that some of the information used to obtain the search warrant on Johnston's home was false. While the original warrant application had said that a police informant had bought drugs at Johnston's house from a man named "Sam", WSB-TV
WSB-TV
WSB-TV, virtual channel 2.1 , is the ABC affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship television station of Cox Enterprises and its Cox Media Group subsidiary...

 reported that the real source of the information had been an alleged drug dealer who said police had pressured him to lie. The station reported that experts said this man's word would not have been enough to legally justify the no-knock warrant.

Trials

On February 7, 2007, it was announced that Georgia's district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

 would seek felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...

 murder and burglary indictments against the three officers involved. The Rev. Markel Hutchins, acting as spokesman for Johnston's family, said her family members were "stunned and disappointed" by the announcement of the indictments because they believe it will disrupt a larger federal investigation of civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 violations by the Atlanta Police Department.

The federal probe into the police department revealed that Atlanta police routinely lied to obtain search warrants, including often falsifying affidavits. The police sergeant in charge of the narcotics unit also pleaded guilty to charges surrounding the shooting, and another officer admitted to extortion. Tesler's attorney, William McKenney, said that planting drugs and lying to obtain search warrants is routine in the police department.

Pleas

On October 30, 2008, Tesler pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Johnston. All three ex-officers pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death." Tesler, who had been stationed at the back of Johnston's house and had not fired during the raid, testified that Smith and Junnier had planned the cover-up and that he had participated in the cover-up out of fear that the other officers would frame him if he did not. Tesler testified that the other two officers had instructed him to memorize a story: that they had witnessed a drug sale to their informant at Johnston's property. Tesler said he had passed up earlier opportunities to tell the truth but had begun telling the truth after federal investigators told him they knew he was lying.
Smith and Junnier pleaded guilty to state charges of manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...

, and federal civil rights charges. Smith and Junnier pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and making false statements, which were state charges. Smith additionally pleaded guilty to perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...

. Smith admitted that he had planted bags of marijuana in Johnston's house after the shooting.

Sentencing

Tesler was convicted of making false statements and acquitted of two other charges: violating oath of a public officer and false imprisonment under color of legal process. In May 2008, Tesler was sentenced to four years and six months in prison for lying to investigators. He also received six months probation and must serve 450 hours of community service.

On February 24, 2009, U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes sentenced former officer Gregg Junnier to six years in prison, Jason Smith to 10 years in prison and Arthur Tesler to five years in prison. Junnier and Tesler had faced recommended 10 years in prison under sentencing guidelines, while Smith faced 12 years and seven months. According to US Attorney David Nahmias, the sentences of Junnier and Smith were reduced after they provided information to assist in the prosecutions of the other ex-officers. Carnes also ordered Smith, Junnier and Tesler to reimburse Johnston's estate the cost of her burial, $8,180.

Aftermath

Changes were made to the police department and to the narcotics unit following Johnston's death. The narcotics team was increased from eight to thirty officers as a result of the shooting. The mayor also announced that APD training procedures would be reviewed and a new regulation would be instituted requiring APD officers to take drug tests.

The shooting also brought under scrutiny the use of no-knock warrants, which exist to prevent drug offenders from having time to destroy evidence. After the shooting, the state senate voted to tighten restrictions, making it more difficult to obtain the warrants. The Atlanta Police Department was also forced to tighten its warrant requirements after an investigation sparked by the shooting. The police department also said it would review its use of confidential informants after the shooting.

As a result of the shooting, the police chief placed Atlanta's eight-man narcotics team on administrative leave.

A civilian review board was created in the aftermath of the shooting in the context of the public outrage that resulted.
Allegations of widespread misconduct in the Atlanta Police Department came under state and federal investigation after Johnston's shooting. The US attorney announced that prosecutors would investigate a “culture of misconduct” within the APD, including common practices of making false statements to get warrants and submitting falsified documentation in drug cases. The DeKalb County district attorney announced on the day of Johnston's shooting that she would also ask for an investigation into 12 other fatal shootings by police since January 2006.

The officers involved in the shooting testified that they had been under pressure to meet performance requirements of the APD, which led them to lie and falsify evidence, and that they had been inadequately trained. Police Chief Pennington denied the existence of quotas in the APD, but acknowledged the existence of "performance measures because if we don’t have them, the officers would come in every day with nothing on their sheets."
Other arrests by the discredited officers which led to convictions have come under review. The District Attorney for Fulton County announced that it was reviewing at least 100 cases in which the ex-officers had been involved earlier, as well as other cases with different officers who may have used similar tactics. In June 2007, one man who was serving prison time on drug charges based on testimony from Junnier and Smith was the first of these cases to be released from prison.
Johnston's shooting, along with several others, brought police use of deadly force under increased scrutiny. A week after the shooting, over 200 people held a rally in Johnston's neighborhood to demand answers to questions surrounding the shooting. The shooting was held by civil rights activists to be an example of the police department's poor treatment of people living in low-income neighborhoods.

In reference to this case, Special Agent in Charge Gregory Jones, FBI Atlanta, said, "Few crimes are as reprehensible as those committed by police officers who violate the very laws they have sworn to uphold."

Lawsuits

One year after the shooting, Johnston's family sued the city of Atlanta, the police chief, and five other officers, accusing them of false imprisonment, civil rights violations, racketeering, and other violations. The suit claims that officers used unreasonable and deadly force and that Johnston's constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure were violated. A spokesperson for the family told the press that as part of the lawsuit the family might ask for the street on which Johnston had lived to be renamed to Kathryn Johnston street.

Sarah Dozier, Johnston's niece, filed a motion asking a federal judge for sanctions against the city of Atlanta because she said it had withheld documents in a wrongful death lawsuit. Dozier's suit against the city had claimed that the incentives for the police to lie to obtain the warrant involved the quota system
Ticket quota
Ticket quotas are the minimal number of tickets to be issued by a law enforcement officer for issuing parking tickets, stopping people for moving violations, issuing quality of life summonses and even for making arrests...

, which gives officers quotas for arrests and warrants. According to Dozier's motion, Lawyers for Johnston's family had asked the Atlanta Police Department for documents about the quotas before the trial began; the police chief had denied the existence of the quota system and the department indicated that there were no such documents. Dozier's motion claims that her lawyers obtained the documents another way and that APD officers had verified their authenticity during pretrial testimony.

Alex White, the man the officers had used as their informant, also filed a lawsuit against Atlanta and police, claiming officers had held him against his will to pressure him to lie for the cover-up.

In August 2010, Johnston's family was awarded $4.9 million in a settlement.

In popular culture

Ohio rappers Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is an American Hip-Hop/R'n'B band from Cleveland, Ohio formed in 1991. It originally consisted of rappers Layzie Bone, Flesh-n-Bone, Bizzy Bone, Krayzie Bone, and Wish Bone. Rapper Eazy-E of the group N.W.A signed Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to Ruthless Records in 1994, when Bone...

 featured audio footage from the scene of protests over the shooting in their song My Street Blues. . Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins is an American singer-songwriter who specializes in folk rock, instrumental rock, adult alternative, and Americana music. He is best known for the 1998 single, "Lullaby", which hit number one on the Adult Top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award.-Career:Mullins was born in...

, a singer/songwriter from Atlanta, wrote and dedicated a song to Kathryn Johnston called "The Ballad of Kathryn Johnston" on his album Honeydew
Honeydew (album)
Honeydew is a 2008 studio album by Shawn Mullins. -Track listing:#All in My Head#Home#The Ballad of Kathryn Johnston#Homeless Joe#Leaving All Your Troubles Behind#Fraction of a Man#See That Train#For America#Cabbagetown#Nameless Faces...

.

See also

  • Obstruction of justice
    Obstruction of justice
    The crime of obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, refers to the crime of interfering with the work of police, investigators, regulatory agencies, prosecutors, or other officials...

  • Police brutality
    Police brutality
    Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....

  • Police corruption
    Police corruption
    Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest....

  • List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States
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