SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — In the summer following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, the fatal shooting of Julian Lewis generated headlines far beyond rural Georgia.
The Georgia State Patrol quickly fired the trooper who opened fire on Lewis within seconds of forcing the Black motorist to drive into a ditch in Screven County. Trooper Jake Thompson was arrested on a murder charge and jailed, though a grand jury declined to indict him. The state of Georgia eventually paid Lewis’ family a $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 the never-before-released dashcam video have raised fresh questions about how the trooper avoided prosecution.
Here are key takeaways from the AP report.
Why is the video just coming out?Dashcam footage of Lewis’ shooting had been kept under wraps for nearly four years as state and federal authorities conducted their respective investigations. Those cases were closed last fall, making the video releasable as a public record.