ATLANTA (AP) – A Black man who was killed by a white Atlanta officer in 2016 swerved around the officer’s vehicle and was not driving at him when the officer opened fire, police dash camera video released Tuesday showed.
The video was released by attorneys for the family of 22-year-old Deravis Caine Rogers, who was shot and killed by Officer James Burns on June 22, 2016. Burns had told investigators he shot at a car that was “trying to run me over and kill me.”
Prosecutors charged Burns with murder a month after the shooting, but legal concerns led them to drop and refile the case two years later. It has not advanced to a trial since then.
On Tuesday, Shean Williams, an attorney for Rogers’ family, called on Fani Willis to pursue the case “with vigor” and make sure it goes before a jury quickly and ends in a conviction. Willis won the Democratic primary for Fulton County District Attorney and faces no Republican opposition in November.
This file photo provided July 21, 2016, by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office shows former Atlanta police Officer James Burns at his booking at Fulton County Jail. Police dash camera video released Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, shows that a Black man, Deravis Caine Rogers, killed by Burns in 2016, swerved around the officer’s vehicle and was not driving at him when the officer opened fire. (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)“It’s not fair, it’s not right and it’s not just that this family and other families who had issues and lost loved ones to the police department of this city have not ever gotten justice for those people and those loved ones,” Williams said at a news conference.