Atlanta, GA
Officer on Atlanta’s mayor’s security detail indicted in deadly 2019 gas station shooting
A photograph of Officer Oliver Simmonds (foreground) in opposition to a picture from the scene of an officer-involved capturing on Jan. 15, 2019 (background). (Atlanta Police Division | FOX 5)
ATLANTA – An Atlanta police officer who was assigned to former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s Government Safety Unit has been indicted and suspended with out pay for capturing an alleged carjacking suspect at a gasoline station within the Castleberry Hill neighborhood in January 2019.
Officer Oliver Simmonds was indicted Friday on prices of felony homicide, aggravated assault with a lethal weapon, and two counts of violation of oath of public workplace.
Simmonds, who was off-duty and in plain garments, pumping gasoline on the Shell station close to the intersection of McDaniel and Whitehall streets round 7:30 p.m. on July 15, 2019. The Fulton County District Lawyer’s Workplace on the time mentioned 18-year-old D’Ettrick Griffin “allegedly jumped into the motive force’s seat of Simmonds’ unmarked SUV.”
The DA’s workplace mentioned Simmonds shot Griffin as he tried to steal the city-issued SUV. The GBI mentioned Griffin was in a position to drive off with the officer’s autos, however crashed into two different automobiles a brief distance away.
There was no indication Griffin had a weapon, the GBI mentioned.
In an unprecedented transfer later that 12 months, then-Fulton County District Lawyer Paul Howard commissioned a billboard to be positioned close to the scene asking the general public for any suggestions within the case.
Shortly after the indictment was handed down on Friday, a spokesperson for the Atlanta Police Division mentioned Simmonds was “relieved from his administrative task and suspended with out pay.”
The division mentioned Simmonds has been on “non-enforcement task” for the reason that capturing. He had been on the power for greater than 8 years when the capturing occurred.