It's been a morning where post content is practically falling into my lap.
I could not get the video to embed, but it is worth following the link to the website to view it. It again, raises that all-important question, why are guns so accessible to criminals under our current system?
From the Atlanta station WSBTV:
I could not get the video to embed, but it is worth following the link to the website to view it. It again, raises that all-important question, why are guns so accessible to criminals under our current system?
From the Atlanta station WSBTV:
Video Shows Slow Response To Jail Shooting
The video shows an inmate removing the gun from a hidden location behind a ceiling tile. The time-stamped video also shows a full two hours passed before the SWAT team arrived to secure that inmate.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer started filing open records requests for the reports and videos from the shooting the day it happened.
The sheriff's office has yet to provide any materials, saying it's still under federal investigation. But a source gave Fleischer the video, hoping to show what happened, and how easily that shooting happened.
According to the video, inmate Kortez Hurt's cell was unlocked so he could take a shower. After he returned to his cell and got dressed, he wandered past other cells talking to several inmates. He repeatedly climbed up and down the stairs.
When officers walked away from the area at 10:58 a.m., the video shows Hurt reached up into a ceiling panel to remove a small gun stuffed inside a roll of toilet paper.
At 11:21 a.m., Hurt went over to a cell behind the stairs for the third time, reached through a slot in the door, and pulled the trigger. There was no visible reaction when the gun went off.
"It's unacceptable, it's a lack of discipline it's a lack of thorough searches," said U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob, who mandated court monitoring of the jail as part of a federal lawsuit.
When Fleischer showed him the video, he was stunned to see the shooting suspect light up a cigarette, and then walk around the common area smoking for several minutes, before telling officers about the injured inmate.
Officers took him to get medical attention for the gunshot wound to his hand. When the officers left, Hurt put the gun back in the ceiling panel.
"For him to be able to hide the weapon the way he did, there's no excuse for that breach of security," Shoob said.
It wasn't until 1:20 p.m., a full two hours after the shooting, when the SWAT team arrived with guns drawn. They ordered Hurt to strip naked, and then they handcuffed him and led him away. "Hopefully the sheriff will have some explanation as to what took place, and why his team had to be brought from all over the place. It seems to me they ought to be there within minutes," said Shoob.
The officers proceeded to use drug sniffing dogs to search inmates' cells. They found dozens of items of contraband, including cell phones, phone chargers, and bags of drugs, according to their report.
"How do you feel about how things are running at that jail now?" Fleischer asked Shoob. He replied, "I'm not happy with it at all."
He says the shooting and contraband issues will come up at his next meeting with Sheriff Ted Jackson in a few weeks. He says he believes Jackson is competent and doing a good job, but he has many questions about jail policies and procedures.
"There's no excuse for what i just saw," said Shoob referring to the video. "No excuse for a man having a weapon, no excuse for the location and finding of those drugs there and there's certainly no excuse for not searching officers or other people coming into the jail."
Fleischer contacted a sheriff's spokesman to ask about the video and specific jail policies, but the sheriff declined her request for an interview.
For several weeks, there have been allegations that the shooting may have been a setup by the suspect and the victim in an effort to sue the county.
Sheriff's spokesperson Tracy Flanagan confirmed investigators are aware of that rumor but would not say if it's true.
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