Prosecutors Plan to Charge Atlanta Police Officers with Murder

On November 21, three Atlanta police officers went to the home of Kathryn Johnston because an informant had claimed that there was cocaine in her home. The officers used a no-knock warrant to enter the 92-year old woman’s home without first announcing their presence. When they came through her door, Johnston fired a handgun and officers returned fire, killing her. An autopsy report said that Johnston had been shot five or six times.

The three officers involved in the shooting were Gregg Junnier, J.R. Smith, and Arthur Tesler, all of whom were injured. Junnier, 40, was hit in the leg and the face, and his bulletproof vest protected him from being shot in the chest. The two other officers suffered bullet wounds, one in the arm and one in the leg.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard sent a letter to Rand Csehy, Junnier’s attorney, advising him that he will ask a grand jury on February 26 to indict the three officers for murder. The letter said that prosecutors were planning to ask the grand jury to indict Junnier on charges of felony murder, as well as counts of violation of oath, burglary, criminal solicitation, aggravated assault and false imprisonment.

The lawyers for Smith and Tesler did not comment on whether they had received letters about their clients being charged, although it is expected that they did. Csehy dismissed the idea that the charges, if filed, would result in any convictions. "I expect an acquittal across the board," Csehy said. "I don’t think there’s any evidence supporting any of these charges."

The shooting resulted in an outcry from civil rights leaders, including the NAACP, objecting to the use of no-knock warrants. The police have been intensely scrutinized about the warrants, which officers use to raid homes where criminal activity is suspected, without being required to announce their presence first. The NAACP has petitioned judges and politicians to place restrictions on how often the warrants are issued and how easy it is to request them. They also are calling for cities like Atlanta to establish citizen review boards to review police actions.