COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A legal team representing the family of Devonte Dawayne Brown, the 28-year-old Black man fatally shot by a Cobb County Police Department officer in August 2021, is stepping up pressure on the district attorney, accusing him of mishandling the case.
The attorneys allege that Cobb County District Attorney Flynn D. Broady Jr. failed to present the full evidence gathered by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to a grand jury, which ultimately led to no indictment against Cobb County Officer Ian McConnell.
“It is clear that they wanted to tank that presentation,” said Attorney Bernarda Villalona, who is representing Brown's family.
Attorneys spoke Tuesday to shed light on what the legal team perceives as a miscarriage of justice. This all comes after the November 2023 release of body camera footage capturing the moments leading up to Brown's death.
The GBI previously said Brown, 28, of Austell, "refused to comply and sped away" after initially being pulled over for a traffic stop in the area of South Loop and Powder Springs Road in Marietta on Aug. 18, 2021. The GBI also said Brown "attempted to get away and hit multiple police vehicles."
The video shows Brown being boxed in by police vehicles, with McConnell shouting commands to him. Despite being trapped in his car with deployed airbags and showing no immediate threat, Brown was shot twelve times by McConnell.
Brown's family attorneys claim that when the shots were fired, their client had been boxed in and was not a threat.
“One of the major insufficiencies in that grand jury presentation is the timing," said Villalona. “They presented that case to the grand jury in December of 2022. What happened between December 2022 and the conclusion of the GBI’s investigation in September 2023, because clearly that investigation continued and that grand jury did not hear what was part of that investigation."
However, District Attorney Broady said the claims are not true.
“We actually got the GBI investigation in January of 2022. We didn’t take it to the grand jury until December 2022. So we had the report, and we had the investigating agent testify at the grand jury hearing," Broady said.
Broady said the GBI completed the investigation well before they closed the case and that the September 2023 date given for when the case was closed refers to when the evidence was returned to police. However, family attorneys disagree and they point to additional discrepancies, including the potential violation of the department's use of force policy, which they claim was not part of the grand jury presentation.
“They also have a Deadly Force Policy, 5.20, stating if the officers are not an imminent threat of injury, you’re not to use deadly force. In this situation, Mr. Brown was boxed in and he wasn't a threat,” said Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, an attorney for Brown's family.
Co-council Crystal Carey echoed similar sentiments.
"For him to shoot 12 times into a moving vehicle, striking and killing Devante Brown was just unreasonable," Carey said.
The family’s attorneys are now calling for a special prosecutor to be appointed, and the case presented to a new grand jury.
The officer in the case was cleared of wrongdoing.