ATLANTA — A former Atlanta police officer was found not guilty on all charges in connection to the death of an 18-year-old in 2019.
Oliver Simmonds was found not guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault and two counts of violation of oath of office, his attorney Jackie Patterson said.
"He is retired from APD and just wants to move forward with his life," Patterson told 11Alive.
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Simmonds was indicted back in 2022 after teenager D'ettrick Griffin was shot and killed after allegedly trying to steal the officer's unmarked police car. 11Alive previously reported how Simmonds was off-duty and in plain clothes at the time. The shooting happened at the Shell gas station on Whitehall Street SW between Northside Drive and McDaniel Street.
According to the GBI, Griffin entered the car and attempted to drive away. The officer tried to stop the car as it drove off and fired his service weapon.
Griffin allegedly kept driving southbound on Whitehall Street and hit two cars before coming to a stop. Atlanta officers who responded found that Griffin died at the scene.
The 18-year-old was just months away from graduating from Benjamin E. Mays High School and wanted to become an aviation mechanic, his family told 11Alive in 2019. He loved football and was a decorated athlete with the trophies to prove it.
His mother, Gaysha Glover, described her son as outgoing with a smile that could brighten up a room.
Photos | D'ettrick Griffin
“A lot of kids looked up to him; his teachers admired him … he just had four months left before graduation and on to aviation camp," Glover said.
The family's attorney, Jonathan Hibbert, told 11Alive back in 2019 that Griffin was unarmed and driving away from the scene.
“Just because this officer was upset that somebody may have offended him or jumped in his car - whatever actually occurred - we see no grounds for the officer to have emptied his gun into the body of D’ettrick Griffin,” Hibbert said.
Immediately after Griffin's death, APD said Simmonds was placed on a "non-enforcement assignment." After learning about the indictment, APD said Simmonds "was relieved from his administrative assignment and suspended without pay."
Less than two weeks after the indictment, the department said he was retired from the force.