Fulton County’s district attorney met with the family of a church deacon who died in August after being stunned with a Taser by an Atlanta police officer at the scene of a traffic crash — one day before the department announced the officer’s firing.
The death of 62-year-old Johnny Hollman was ruled a homicide, caused by a combination of the officer’s Taser and heart disease, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office.
At a news conference on the courthouse steps Monday afternoon, Hollman’s family said the purpose of their meeting with DA Fani Willis was two-fold: to give her a chance to meet Hollman’s children, and to ask how long it might take her to reach a charging decision.
“He was a father, a grandfather, a deacon, and he did not deserve to die the way that he did,” family attorney Mawuli Davis said.
On Tuesday morning, the Atlanta Police Department announced that Officer Kiran Kimbrough had been fired for reportedly failing to follow the department’s standard operating procedures while trying to arrest Hollman.
Hollman’s family said Willis assured them the officer’s body camera footage could be made public once all the witnesses are interviewed, though it’s unclear how long that may take. So far, the city has withheld the video, citing the GBI’s ongoing investigation.
Davis noted the Atlanta Police Department regularly releases bodycam video “when it is helpful to law enforcement.” He also said it would likely take months for the DA’s office to decide whether to pursue charges in the case.
“The only thing that we think the public should conclude is that the reason it hasn’t been released is because it’s damaging to the narrative,” Davis said. “The only person on that video who was out of control — that we saw — was Officer Kimbrough.”
According to the department, Kimbrough should have called a supervisor to the scene before arresting the deacon for refusing to sign his traffic ticket.
Credit: Shaddi Abusaid / shaddi.abusaid@ajc.com
Credit: Shaddi Abusaid / shaddi.abusaid@ajc.com
The family was previously allowed to view five minutes of the unreleased video, which they said was troubling to watch.
Authorities said Hollman was determined to be the at-fault driver in the minor crash and became agitated when the officer tried to cite him. But Hollman’s children said the 23-year-old police officer got angry after their father asked to speak with a supervisor.
“What we saw was murder,” Davis said. “We saw an assault against a 62-year-old man who was literally pleading for his life — informing the officer that he could not breathe.”
In a statement announcing the officer’s firing, police Chief Darin Schierbaum said he doesn’t arrive at such decisions lightly.
“I understand the difficult and dangerous job that our officers do each and every day throughout the city,” Schierbaum said. “Only after a diligent review of all of the facts, while ensuring the due process of our officers, do I arrive at my decision.”
APD changed its policy in the wake of the deacon’s death, instructing officers not to arrest drivers for refusing to sign traffic citations. Going forward, the department said, police will simply write “refusal to sign” on the ticket.
The policy change came after Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens ordered “a top-to-bottom evaluation of the interaction” between Hollman and Kimbrough, who was placed on administrative leave before his firing.
According to the autopsy report, Hollman was “unresponsive from the time that the energy device was deployed.” He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Hollman’s official cause of death is listed as “cardiac dysrhythmia due to use of (a Taser) in association with hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” according to the autopsy report. He also had underlying conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and obesity, which the medical examiner determined contributed to his death.
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