SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) 鈥 Julian Lewis didn鈥檛 pull over for the Georgia State Patrol cruiser flashing its blue lights behind him on a rural highway. He still didn't stop after pointing a hand out the window and turning onto a darkened dirt road as the trooper sounded his siren.
Five minutes into a pursuit that began over a broken taillight, the 60-year-old Black man was dead 鈥 shot in the forehead by the white trooper who after forcing Lewis to crash into a ditch. Trooper Jake Thompson insisted he pulled the trigger as Lewis revved the engine of his Nissan Sentra and jerked his steering wheel as if trying to mow him down.
鈥淚 had to shoot this man,鈥 Thompson can be heard telling a supervisor on video recorded by his dash-mounted camera at the shooting scene in rural Screven County, midway between Savannah and Augusta. 鈥淎nd I鈥檓 just scared.鈥
But new investigative details obtained by The Associated Press and the never-before-released dashcam video of the August 2020 shooting have raised fresh questions about how the trooper avoided prosecution with nothing more than a signed promise never to work in law enforcement again. Use-of-force experts who reviewed the footage for AP said the shooting appeared to be unjustified.
An investigative file obtained by AP offers the most detailed account yet of the case, including documents that spell out why the Georgia Bureau of Investigation concluded the 27-year-old trooper鈥檚 version of events . For instance, an inspection of Lewis鈥 car indicated the crash had disconnected the vehicle鈥檚 battery and rendered it immobile.
Footage of the pursuit has never been made public. It was first obtained by the authors of a new book about race and economic inequality titled 鈥淔ifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap.鈥 Louise Story and Ebony Reed shared the video with AP, which verified its authenticity and obtained additional documents under Georgia's open-records law.
The footage does not include visuals of the actual shooting, which happened outside the camera's view. But it shows the crucial final moments in which Thompson uses a police maneuver to send Lewis' car spinning into a ditch. Then the trooper鈥檚 cruiser stops parallel to Lewis鈥 vehicle and Thompson鈥檚 voice barks, 鈥淗ey, get your hands up!鈥 The gunshot rings out before he can finish the warning.
The documents show Thompson fired just 1.6 seconds after his cruiser stopped.
鈥淭his guy just came out shooting鈥 and did not give Lewis 鈥渞emotely sufficient time to respond鈥 to his order, said Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton, Florida, police chief who wrote a dissertation about police chases.
鈥淭his goes beyond a stupid mistake,鈥 added Charles 鈥淛oe鈥 Key, a former Baltimore police lieutenant and use-of-force expert who has consulted on thousands of such cases.
Key also took issue with the maneuver to disable Lewis鈥 vehicle, saying that, too, was unwarranted. And he deemed Thompson鈥檚 claim that he fired because of the revving engine 鈥渢otal garbage.鈥
鈥淚鈥檓 not in favor of people running from the police,鈥 Key said. 鈥淏ut it doesn鈥檛 put him in the category of people deserving to be shot by the police.鈥
Thompson on a murder charge a week after the Aug. 7, 2020, shooting, which came amid a summer of protests in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and other Black people. The trooper was denied bail and spent more than 100 days in jail.
But in the end, Thompson walked free without a trial. A state grand jury in 2021 . The district attorney overseeing the case closed it last fall, when federal prosecutors also ruled out civil rights charges.
At the same time, the U.S. Justice Department quietly entered into a non-prosecution agreement with Thompson forbidding him from ever working in law enforcement again 鈥 a highly unusual deal that brought little solace to Lewis鈥 family.
鈥淚t鈥檚 inadequate,鈥 said Lewis鈥 son, Brook Bacon. 鈥淚 thought the shortcomings that occurred at the state level would be more thoroughly examined at the federal level, but that鈥檚 apparently not the case.鈥
The state of Georgia in 2022 paid Lewis鈥 family a to avoid a lawsuit.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for Georgia's Southern District, which reached the non-prosecution deal with Thompson, declined to discuss it except to say the Justice Department communicated with the Lewis family "consistent with the law and DOJ policy.鈥
District Attorney Daphne Totten did not respond to requests for comment. Neither Thompson nor his attorney, Keith Barber, would discuss the case.
Because Georgia law doesn鈥檛 require troopers to use body cameras, the dashcam footage is the only video of the shooting.
"It鈥檚 a heartbreaking case and sheds light on the complexities and difficulties Black families face when intersecting with the justice system,鈥 said Reed, a former AP journalist and one of the authors who first obtained the footage.
Lewis worked odd jobs as a carpenter and handyman. He helped put a new roof and siding on a local church, relatives said, and repaired plumbing and electrical wiring in people's homes. He would often charge friends and family only for materials.
鈥淗e was just a good, kind-hearted person,鈥 said Tonia Moore, one of Lewis鈥 sisters. 鈥淓verybody has flaws.鈥
Lewis also struggled with drugs and alcohol. He served prison time for cocaine possession and multiple DUI violations. After the shooting, blood tests found alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine in his system.
Thompson, who policed Georgia highways for six years before the shooting, was described in a performance evaluation as 鈥渉ard working and aggressive.鈥 He led his post in DUI arrests, according to his personnel file, and preferred working nights to improve his chances of catching intoxicated drivers.
Days after the shooting, Thompson told GBI investigators he used the tactical maneuver to end the chase 鈥 which he estimated reached top speeds of 65 mph (105 kph) 鈥 out of concern that the pursuit was approaching a more populated area. He acted right after Lewis' car rolled without stopping through an intersection with a stop sign.
Thompson said that after getting out of his cruiser beside Lewis鈥 car in the ditch, he heard the Nissan鈥檚 engine 鈥渞evving up at a high rate of speed.鈥
鈥淚t appeared to me that the violator was trying to use his vehicle to injure me,鈥 Thompson said in an audio recording of the GBI interview obtained by the AP. He said he fired 鈥渋n fear for my life and safety.鈥
On the dashcam footage, a brief noise resembling a revving engine can be heard just before Thompson shouts his warning and fires. Less than two minutes later, the trooper can be heard saying: 鈥淛esus Christ! He almost ran over me.鈥
According to the GBI case file, Thompson fired facing the open driver's side window of Lewis' car less than 10 feet (3 meters) away.
Agents at the scene found Lewis' front tires pointing away from the trooper's cruiser. They also determined Lewis鈥 car had no power after the Nissan struck the ditch. Raising the hood, they discovered the battery had tipped onto its side after its mounting broke. One of the battery cables had been pulled loose, and the engine鈥檚 air filter housing had come partially open.
Investigators later performed a field test on Lewis鈥 car in which they connected the battery and started the engine. When an agent disconnected one of the cables from the battery, the car鈥檚 engine immediately stopped. Likewise, opening the air filter cover caused the engine to die.
Because grand jury proceedings are generally secret, it's unknown why the panel declined to indict Thompson in June 2021. Georgia affords law enforcement officers the chance to defend themselves before a grand jury, a privilege not given to any other defendants.
Totten, the district attorney, decided not to try again, saying in a Sept. 28 letter to the GBI that 鈥渢here has been no new evidence developed in this case.鈥
For Bacon, Lewis鈥 son, the lack of charges is an open wound. He worries no one will remember what happened given the passage of almost four years 鈥 and the number of others killed by police under questionable circumstances.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard for anybody to even reach back that far, especially if they didn鈥檛 hear about it initially,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut these issues haven鈥檛 gone away.鈥
___
Mustian reported from Miami.
___
Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or
