Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones will not prosecute a Savannah police officer who shot and killed Maurice Mincey during a traffic stop last year, her office announced in a press release Tuesday evening.
"While the untimely death of any citizen is unfathomable, the evidence shows that Mr. Mincey's possession of a firearm, his failure to respond to verbal commands and sudden exit from the car posed an imminent risk of danger to officers and citizens in the immediate area," Jones said in the release, before calling the officer's actions "justifiable" given the circumstances.
The decision comes nearly a year after Mincey, 36, was shot and killed outside an East Bolton Street home by Savannah police Officer Thomas Love. The story on what happened that night has shifted since Mincey's July 17 killing.
Credit: Courtesy of Maria Scott
Credit: Courtesy of Maria Scott
The night Mincey was killed
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's initial findings, Savannah police stopped a car at the intersection near East Bolton Street and Waters Avenue around 9:30 p.m. after the driver of the vehicle allegedly failed to stop at a stop sign.
Nearly 50 minutes after the stop was initiated, the GBI was called to the scene. While officers were talking to the unidentified driver outside the vehicle, Mincey was "moving around inside the vehicle when officers asked Mincey to stop moving and show his hands," according to a GBI news release at that time.
The GBI initially stated Mincey refused to do as instructed and instead stepped out of the vehicle and pointed a gun at officers. They walked that statement back the next day.
Credit: Raisa Habersham/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Raisa Habersham/Savannah Morning News
In today's statement, the DA's office recounted the same events, but said that after reviewing the body camera footage and the GBI report, Mincey "removed a firearm from his rear waistband and placed it either in his lap or between his knees while talking to an officer through the passenger-side window."
The release goes on to state that Love, who was on the driver's side of the car, instructed Mincey to show his hands. The DA's office said Mincey then opened the passenger door and exited the car with a gun in his hand.
Credit: Raisa Habersham/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Raisa Habersham/Savannah Morning News
That’s when Love shot Mincey in the back through the driver-side door of the car.
Video footage from that night confirmed the gun — a Smith and Wesson 9 mm semiautomatic pistol — fell from Mincey's hand and slid across the pavement, stopping a few feet away from Mincey's body, the DA's office said.
Lawsuit is possible
Footage of the shooting has not been publicly released. Mincey's family was shown footage of Mincey's final moments for the first time during a closed-door meeting with their attorneys and Jones and her staff.
"The family could not take seeing it," Pastor Alan Mainor told a Savannah Morning News reporter shortly after the meeting. "It was so horrendous for them. They had to relive that and see their loved one alive at that moment and killed again."
Mincey's family and their attorney dispute the claim that there was a gun on Mincey at the time of his fatal shooting, reiterating he did not point or aim a gun at anyone.
"I'm not going to question the district attorney's discernment on what she believes is an actual as they call it, clean shot or not," Mincey family attorney David Aylor said outside the Chatham County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon shortly after they met with Jones and her staff.
"But what I see in the video, was a quick action that occurred within just seconds, from a person that had been compliant the entire time. There was a gun present on the scene, but we saw no footage of the gun once the deceased exited the vehicle. We saw no footage where the gun was on his person."
Aylor said he expects to receive the files in two weeks and will decide from there what civil action to pursue.
For Mincey's fiancée, Marie Scott, the final decision on the part of the DA left her with more questions and feeling frustrated that it took so long decide whether the office was going to file charges against Love.
"He was no threat. I don't think he got two steps out of the car," Scott via phone, recounting the footage of Mincey's killing. "He didn't have a chance."
Raisa Habersham is a watchdog and investigative Reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at rhabersham@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Chatham DA declines to file charges against SPD officer who shot, killed Savannah man
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