A white, former Georgia state trooper was charged with murder on Friday, a week after he fatally shot a Black man who tried to flee from a traffic stop.
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27-year-old Jacob Gordon Thompson chased after 60-year-old after Julian Edward Roosevelt Lewis after he fled from a routine traffic stop in Screven County before firing off his weapon one time. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations reported Thompson drove after him down several roads before conducting a driving maneuver at that forced Lewis’ vehicle to stop at a ditch. The family’s lawyer, Francys Johnson, said Lewis did not exit his vehicle at the time of the shooting and was shot in the face.
“Mr. Lewis never got out of the vehicle and the investigation will show that mere seconds after the crash, he was shot to death, shot in the face and killed,”
As per the GBI, Thompson will be booked at the Screven County Jail and was fired from his position as a state trooper by the Georgia Department of Public Safety after they received news of his charges. He worked for the Georgie State Patrol for seven years.
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NAACP Georgia Chapter President Rev. James Woodall called the shooting unlawful amid the racial tensions occurring throughout the country and a national outcry for equality and justice.
“No one should have to bury a loved one simply because of a busted tail light. This was a case of racial profiling. We are not necessarily happy right now. Yes, the man was arrested, but we’re done dying.”
SOURCE: Associated Press