SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Lawyers for the family of a Georgia woman who was shot to death last year when sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant at her cousin’s home are asking the Justice Department to investigate, arguing that the deadly raid echoes the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.
The shooting erupted seconds after Camden County deputies broke down the door of Varshan Brown’s darkened home in Woodbine, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Savannah, just before 5 a.m. May 4. of 2021. home for drugs.
Brown’s cousin, Latoya James, 37, was shot to death when officers and Brown shot each other. Brown was injured and later charged with crimes. Local prosecutors did not file charges against the officers after concluding they were justified in using deadly force.
Lawyers for the James family say there are striking parallels between this case and the 2020 raid by police officers in Louisville, Kentucky, that left Taylor dead. In both cases, officers arrived in the middle of the night and forced their way into homes with little or no warning. And each case involved a shooting that killed an unarmed black woman.
The Department of Justice presented federal civil rights charges against four Louisville officers earlier this month in connection with Taylor’s death. James deserves similar treatment from federal authorities, said Harry Daniels, an attorney for the Georgia woman’s family.
“Latoya James was innocent in all aspects of this case,” Daniels said Tuesday. “She was at her cousin’s house. She was not the subject of any investigation.”
A Justice Department spokeswoman, Aryele Bradford, said the department had no comment.
Shortly after James’ death, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released body camera video showing officers announcing themselves at the home’s darkened door and immediately forcing their way inside. Multiple shots were fired in a matter of seconds.
The deputy wearing the body camera was wearing a shield that obstructed much of the video. It doesn’t show who opened fire, and neither James nor Brown can be seen in the three-minute clip.
Lawyers for the James family insist that officers did not give the home’s occupants enough time to reach the door and that Brown opened fire without knowing it was law enforcement officers who had forced their way inside.
District Attorney Keith Higgins didn’t see it that way. In April, nearly a year after the shooting, Higgins concluded that the officers involved would not face charges.
“While any loss of life is always tragic, the officers’ use of force in this case was justified to protect their lives,” Higgins said in a statement at the time.
Instead, Higgins’ office managed to persuade a grand jury to indict Brown on a felony count of murder, arguing that he was responsible for James’s death by firing a gun at officers.
A spokesman for the district attorney’s office did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday.
Authorities have not publicly said whether it was the officers or Brown who fired the shots that killed James. Daniels said prosecutors told James’s family that the fatal shots came from the officers.
Under Georgia law, someone can be convicted of felony murder if they commit a felony that results in death, regardless of intent. Brown is also charged with felony counts of aggravated assault on law enforcement officers, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Brown has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He remains jailed in Camden County.
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