Takeaways from AP reporting on new footage of fatal shooting of Black motorist in Georgia

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — In the summer after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, the fatal shooting of Julian Lewis made headlines far beyond rural Georgia.

The Georgia State Patrol quickly fired on the trooper who opened fire on Lewis seconds after forcing the Black motorist into a ditch in Screven County. Trooper Jake Thompson was arrested for murder and imprisoned, although a grand jury declined to indict him. The state of Georgia ultimately paid Lewis' family an amount. $4.8 million settlement.

But unlike Floyd's death — and so many other questionable uses of force by police — no footage of the Aug. 7, 2020, shooting has been made public until now. An Associated Press report and previously unreleased dashcam video have raised new questions about how the officer avoided prosecution.

Here are the key takeaways from the AP report.

Why was the video just released?

Dashcam footage of Lewis' shooting was kept secret for nearly four years as state and federal authorities conducted their respective investigations. Those cases were dismissed last fall, allowing the video to be made public.

Journalists Louise Story and Ebony Reed obtained the video as part of their reporting for their new book “Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap.” They shared the footage with AP, which verified its authenticity and obtained additional investigative documents that had also not previously been made public.

Thompson was not wearing a body camera, so the dashcam video is the only available footage of the shooting.

What do the images show?

The video shows Thompson following Lewis for what he later said was a broken tail light. Minutes into the chase, Lewis points a hand out the window of his Nissan Sentra and turns onto a dark dirt road. Lewis drives through an intersection with a stop sign before Thompson uses a tactical maneuver to force the vehicle into a ditch.

The video doesn't show the actual shooting, but it captured audio of Thompson barking, “Hey, raise your hand!” He doesn't even finish his warning before the gunshot rings out. Investigators determined Thompson fired 1.6 seconds after stopping his patrol car.

Use-of-force experts said the shootings appeared unjustified.

“This goes way beyond a stupid mistake,” said Charles “Joe” Key, a former Baltimore police lieutenant and use-of-force expert who has consulted on thousands of such cases.

What happened to the soldier?

Thompson spent more than 100 days in jail but was released without trial. A state grand jury in 2021 refused to file an indictment in the case, and the prosecutor overseeing the case dismissed it.

The U.S. Department of Justice reviewed the civil rights charges against Thompson but instead entered into a non-prosecution agreement with him that bars him from ever working in law enforcement again.

“It’s not enough,” said Lewis’ son, Brook Bacon. “I thought the deficiencies found at the state level would be looked at more thoroughly at the federal level, but that is apparently not the case.”

Neither Thompson nor his attorney, Keith Barber, would discuss the case. District Attorney Daphne Totten did not respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia, which entered into a non-prosecution agreement with Thompson, declined to discuss it except to say that the Justice Department communicated with the Lewis family “in accordance with the law and policy of the Department of Justice.