Cops ‘fired on kids’
Near-tragedy after Ga. traffic stop
A Georgia family said cops opened fire on a car full of black children, one as young as 9, according to a report.
The children were uninjured — but it left them, and their families, shaken.
The incident unfolded Saturday morning in the south-central town of Waycross, as five kids, ranging in age from 9 to 16, headed home from a Walmart.
Three of the youngest kids in the car told News4Jax that a police car turned on its lights to pull them over.
The 12-year-old said the older teens in the car were scared, and told the three youngest to jump out and run home and get their father.
That’s when cops started shooting, according to the 9-year-old who said a bullet whizzed by his head. No one was hurt.
Dad Dominique Goodman Sr., told the station that he went outside after hearing gunfire and saw the kids running toward him.
“We go in the back, we open the door, we see my 9-year-old, my 12year-old and a 14-year-old running from the police behind them with gunshots coming behind them,” Goodman told the TV station. “We go down the street and we see our 15-year-old and our 16-year-old on the ground.”
The kids had planned to go to a football tournament in Jacksonville, Fla., Saturday, he said. Two of the children were supposed to play in the tournament, he added.
“They shot at a car full of unarmed minors . . . Like who in the world can’t see that this is a 9-year-old? Who can’t see that this is a child?” Goodman said. “They are babies. What was the purpose of shooting?”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it was probing the incident.
The kids caught the officer’s attention after an apparent traffic violation, GBI said. One officer followed the three younger kids, while a second cop responding to the scene said he opened fire when the vehicle “drove towards him,” the GBI said.
The two older teens, ages 15 and 16, got out while the car was still in drive. One had an “altercation” with an officer, the GBI said. The teen was handcuffed and treated for minor injuries, GBI said.
Meanwhile, a woman claimed her brother was “pistol whipped” by police. “My brother was manhandled pulled out the car possibly tased and pistol whipped, but no injuries?” wrote Savannah Boyd on Facebook, telling The Post the 16year-old had been charged and 15year-old was on house arrest.