COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A federal civil lawsuit is being filed against a Cobb County Police officer accused of shooting and killing Devonte Brown back in 2021.
Legal counsel for the family also asked that a special prosecutor be put in place.
In attendance at a press conference on Wednesday was the family of Vincent Truitt, who was shot by a Cobb County Police officer at the end of a chase back in July 2020, along with Chair of the Georgia State NAACP Gerald Griggs.
You can watch the full press conference in the video player above this story.
The officer was not charged in the case, with a grand jury declining to bring an indictment.
Together, they called for greater accountability for law enforcement in instances they called "constitutionally unreasonable."
“The Cobb County Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office have made it very clear that they aren’t interested in seeking justice for Devonte Brown or his family,” attorney Bernarda Villalona said in a statement. “They want us to just go away. They want this family and this community to just sit down and shut up. But we’re not going away. We’re not going to let them sweep this under the rug. This family deserves justice and if the DA’s office won’t fight for it, we will.”
MORE ON BROWN
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."
Bodycam video released last year shows Brown being boxed in by police vehicles, with the officer shouting commands to him. Despite being trapped in his car with deployed airbags and showing no immediate threat, Brown was shot twelve times by the officer.
Brown's family attorneys claim that when the shots were fired, their client had been boxed in and was not a threat.
“Let’s be clear. It’s not just that Devonte Brown wasn’t a threat. He couldn’t have been,” attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter said in a statement. “He was trapped in a car with the airbags deployed. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t see. He was defenseless. That’s why the other officers on the scene didn’t fire."
Attorneys for the family have previously alleged that a grand jury declined to indict Cobb County Officer Ian McConnell because Cobb District Attorney Flynn D. Broady Jr. failed to present the full evidence.
“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.
MORE ON TRUITT
Truitt was shot by a Cobb County Police officer at the end of a chase in July 2020. Police had been pursuing a stolen car he was a passenger in. A Cobb County grand jury ruled the shooting justified in Feb. 2021 and declined to bring charges against the officer involved.
At the time the $150 million suit was announced, attorneys for Truitt's family described it as the largest in Georgia history in a police shooting case.
District Judge J. P. Boulee dismissed the suit, which alleged Fourth Amendment violations, on qualified immunity grounds. Attorneys for Truitt's family said they will "continue to fight for justice."
The police narrative contended Truitt had "brandished" a weapon as he ran out of the car. According to the ruling, police bodycam showed a "dark handgun very close to where (Truitt) fell" after being shot.
His family and attorneys said the bodycam video showed he was running with his back to the officer, never pointing anything at him or even turning back toward him, and clearly was not a threat.
The lawsuit argued Truitt "posed no danger" to the officer who fired on him.
The judge wrote the use of force "was objectively reasonable under the Fourth Amendment."