Trooper faces murder charge in shooting of Black man in Ga.
SYLVANIA, Ga. – Family, friends and people seeking social injustice reform gathered Friday evening in downtown Sylvania for a candlelight vigil for Julian Edward Roosevelt Lewis,who died from a Georgia State Patrol trooper’s single shot seven days earlier during a traffic stop on a county dirt road.
Trooper Jacob Gordon Thompson, 27, was charged by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation with felony murder and aggravated assault three hours before the start of the vigil for Lewis, a 60-yearold carpenter who was characterized by loved ones as a “great caring man.”
Georgia’s NAACP chapter president called the slaying of Lewis another chilling example of a Black man being killed unlawfully by a white law enforcement officer. An attorney for Lewis’ family said the trooper initiated the traffic stop over a burned-out tail light and Lewis was shot almost immediately after the trooper forced his car into a ditch.
The GBI said Lewis was fatally shot Aug. 7 after a chase in rural Screven County, about 60 miles northwest of Savannah. This marks the 56th officerinvolved shooting this year investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“He was a kind soul. He was a people person,” said Betty Lewis, the victim’s widow, at the vigil that drew approximately 200 on a humid night in a city filled with a great deal of uncertainty about what might occur after a now-fired white trooper ended the life of a Black man.
Lewis was laid to rest Saturday morning with graveside funeral services at Charlestown United Methodist Church in Screven County.
“Screven County has shown up for Screven County,” said Francys Johnson, a former Georgia NAACP president who grew up in Sylvania who is representing the family. “Julian Lewis did not deserve to die like he did on Stoney Pond Road.”
Johnson said Lewis reportedly was being stopped by Thompson for a blown out taillight. Johnson said Lewis was shot in the head.
The GBI began its investigation on Aug. 7 at the scene of the death. The GBI reported Thompson attempted to stop a Nissan Sentra for a traffic offense on Stoney Pond Road. When Lewis did not stop, Thompson began a vehicle pursuit that went down several country roads.
Thompson initiated a Precision Intervention Technique maneuver, causing Lewis’ car to crash into a ditch along the road, and Thompson discharged a round after Lewis revved his engine, “wrenching the steering wheel in an aggressive backand-forth manner towards me,” Thompson wrote in a GSP incident report.
“It appeared to me that the violator was trying to use his vehicle to injure me,” Thompson wrote. “Being in fear for my life and safety, I discharged my weapon once.” The report from Thompson reads that he unsuccessfully tried to help Lewis.
The Georgia Department of Public Safety terminated Thompson because of his “negligence or inefficiency in performing assigned duties; or commission of a felony.”