ATLANTA — More than two weeks after the family of Johnny Hollman viewed an Atlanta Police officer's body camera video showing the deacon's final moments on Aug. 10, they're now demanding the police department release it to the public.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) launched a "use of force" investigation into the arrest of the 62-year-old along Cunningham Place in Southwest Atlanta. The GBI said shortly before 11:30 p.m. on that Thursday, an Atlanta Police officer was dispatched to the intersection of Cunningham Place and Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard for a crash.
The GBI said in its release that Hollman became "non-compliant" and the officer attempted to take him into custody. The agency said there was a physical struggle between the two and when Hollman refused to comply with the officer's commands, the officer deployed a taser.
Once in custody, the GBI said the officer noticed Hollman became unresponsive and called for EMS to respond.
During this interaction with the police officer, Anitra Hollman said she was on the phone with her father. She said he called her from the scene.
Not only did Anitra hear her father's final moments through the phone, but on Sept. 8, she saw his final moments when the family was allowed to view the officer's body camera footage. After the family watched the video, they stepped outside City Hall to a group of journalists where their attorney spoke about what they just witnessed.
The family's attorney Mawuli Mel Davis said Hollman disagreed with the officer who found him at fault for the crash. Davis said Hollman requested the officer call a sergeant because he didn't feel like he was at fault.
"Instead of giving him a sergeant, this officer told him he was going to arrest him for not signing the ticket," Davis explained.
On Tuesday, for the first time since seeing the video, Hollman's daughter described what she saw next. She said her dad didn't refuse to sign the ticket.
"He told them, I’ll sign the ticket, I’ll sign the ticket and as he’s walking up to sign the ticket, you grab him, then you leg sweep him then you throw him down. But he was still asking you, I could still hear him begging, 'I can’t breathe,'" Anitra explained.
She recalled hearing her dad yelling for help. She could hear him on the phone. By the time she got to the scene, she said he was already gone.
"I'm just hollering out for him," Anitra recalled. "He was laying there, his head down. I went to... his truck, I grabbed his phone off the truck and I hung it up."
Anitra said then she just remembered yelling.
"I’m telling them 'Y'all killed my daddy, y'all killed my daddy'... I heard it, I heard it was on the phone."
She along with the rest of her family are now demanding that APD release the video.
They have planned a "March for Justice" on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 12 p.m. that will begin at Dean Rusk Park at 350 Peeples St SW. Anitra said they'll then march to the spot on Cunningham Place where her father died and stop. The march will then continue to the front doors of Atlanta City Hall.
"A minor accident should not cause someone a death sentence, it shouldn’t be that way," she explained. "Show the video to the world, let everybody see what happened on the night of August 10."
Atlanta Police updated their standard operating procedures, which they released on the same day the Hollman family viewed the officer's body camera video.
The GBI said its investigation remains ongoing. The medical examiner's office said the autopsy reports, as to the cause and manner of death for Hollman, are still pending.