FULTON COUNTY DA SHOULD KNOW: 'I GOT HIM' IS NOT AN ADMISSION OF GUILT.

ICHEOKU says watching the Fulton Country District Attorney Paul Howard Jr news conference showed a man under heavy pressure to deliver for his Atlanta black community on the death of Rayschard Brooks.  The pressure was so palpable that you can see it in both his demeanor and facial contouring and he was sweaty too. He was forced to rush the indictment without first waiting for the rightful agency, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, to complete their investigation. 

It is usually after they make pronouncement that the police officer's conduct warranted an indictment based on their finding, that the District Attorney then indicts. But he chose to presumptuously indict the police officer just to please his black people and such a rather perfunctory indictment for murder, of the police officer, will not stand muster and a trial. A charge of murder which is surely to be thrown out by the judge or on the application of the defense, be dismissed, because what happened, even if it was a crime, did not rise to murder. ICHEOKU is emphatic that no matter how terrible what happened was or may seem, the criminal justice system does not seek to make society feel good, but only to punish a criminal behavior. 

So, based on the circumstances, the police officer did not commit any crime when he acted as he was authorized under Georgia State law, firing back with a deadly weapon at a fleeing suspect who first fired at him with a deadly weapon which he stole from the police. This is the sole soul of the case, the determinant of whether he had the right to defend himself from an assailant who wanted to incapacitate or even kill him while on his hot pursuit. Whether the officer reacted reasonably is a different thing all together; but if as Georgia State's law empowered him, he had the right to react as he reacted, case closed. Some people might not like it, but that is the black letter of the Georgia State's law which classifies taser as a deadly weapon and when attacked with it, the officer reserves the right to respond with a deadly weapon too. 

Now, as regards to the excited utterance made by the policeman when he finally made contact with the dying victim that "I got him", it is not an admission of guilt. The expression could be interpreted in so many different ways including that he finally caught up with the suspect after chasing him upon his fleeing from the police to elude arrest. The officer did not immediately begin shooting at the victim upon the chase; he only returned fire when Rayschard Brooks fired at him. He had no intention to kill Rayschard but just wanted to arrest him for drunk driving. The victim resisted arrest, fought off the policemen, stole their weapon and then ran off, causing the chase to begin. 

Even the police officer stepping on the victim's wrist to hold him down shows that the officer did not know that his shot was fatal and thought that Rayschard was still a continuing flee risk. The officer did not say "I killed the Nigger" or "I killed the SOB", which would have registered his malicious intention and that he deliberately wanted to kill him. He did not, it was nothing deliberate as the officer merely wanted to take him into custody and keep other road users safe from a drunk driver. There is also a glaring evidence of their mutual respectful conversation which showed that things were going smoothly until Rayschard decided to escalate it by resisting arrest, fighting the police, fleeing and shooting at the police in his hot pursuit. 

But unfortunately, a showboating District Attorney, playing to the gallery of political correctness and desperately trying to win some points from Black Lives Matter, went out of his way to indict for murder and you wonder where was the malice aforethought. The officer never left for work that day intending to shoot and kill Rayschard Brooks or any other black man for that matter. Everybody saw the various video clips of how both men started off cordially and courteously before the victim decided to surprise the officers by doing exactly the same time which he had earlier assured the police officers that he will not do. According to the victim, he acknowledged that the police officers were doing their job and that he will comply with whatever the ask of him, before changing his mind when the handcuffs came out because he did not want to go to jail for drunk driving. 

Thanks for video cameras, every of their interaction were captured and it is no longer second guessing what transpired. So, all those carrying water for the victim should in fairness also speak to what the victim did wrong, many things, to bring about the harm that was done to him and these officers whose conscience is forever stained with taking another person's life. They did not intend to so do but the victim forced their hand, admitted they could have shown more restrain, but the heat of the moment proved otherwise. ICHEOKU's verdict is that the officers will beat the charges, the officer indicted with murder will also beat the murder count. If the case is not completely dismissed, they will be acquitted following a trial on all the counts including stepping on the dead body as everything happened under the same unbroken chain of passion starting from the resisting of arrest. Even manslaughter is not tenable because the Georgia State law exculpates the officer and completely exonerates them.