Officers will not be charged in August killing

“Investigator Batterson, Investigator Ayres and Officer Dyess did the exact job that they were called and trained to do. Our community is fortunate beyond measure that we did not lose a law enforcement officer.”

— DISTRICT ATTORNEY COTY WAMP

Three officers who shot and killed a Chattanooga man in August following a traffic stop at a gas station will not be charged now that a TBI review is complete, the district attorney decided.

Roger Heard Jr., 34, was killed Aug. 11 after officers in plain clothes tried to stop and serve him warrants at the Speedway at Holtzclaw Avenue and Third Street.

Security video previously released by District Attorney Coty Wamp

showed an unmarked police car stopping Heard’s car after he pulled away from a gas pump at the station. One officer approached Heard’s car pointing a gun at him, the video showed, and opened the driver-side door as Heard kicked it open.

Though the video has no sound, Wamp said Heard fired first toward the officer then ran from the vehicle while other officers fired. After he fell to the ground, the video appeared to show officers continuing to fire.

The traffic stop came as officers from Chattanooga’s gun team were working to serve warrants on “multiple dangerous offenders,” Wamp said previously. According to Wamp, Heard had felony warrants from Knox County and was found with a “large amount” of cash, about a pound of marijuana and a firearm, which he was barred from carrying as someone with past felony convictions, she said.

Three Chattanooga officers — Celtain Batterson, Nicholas Ayres and Christopher Dyess — were placed on administrative leave after the shooting. All were placed back on their regular duties by September. They’re now under investigation by the department’s internal affairs investigators, Sgt. Victor Miller said by email Tuesday.

Wamp directed the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to investigate the shooting. That case is now closed, a TBI spokesperson said by email, though Wamp made her decision nearly two months before the TBI report was completed.

“Investigator Batterson, Investigator Ayres and Officer Dyess did the exact job that they were called and trained to do,” Wamp said in a news release about a week after the shooting. “Our community is fortunate beyond measure that we did not lose a law enforcement officer.”

In a December letter, Wamp said she found the officers’ actions justified.

“Suspect Heard’s display and use of a firearm placed surrounding law enforcement, and innocent bystanders, in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury,” Wamp wrote in the letter, which she shared with the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “Pursuant to Tennessee state law, officers were able to respond with lethal force.”

Marie Mott, a local activist who led protests against police brutality in 2020, said Wamp’s decision is not a surprise. She said she feels Wamp is more lenient on law enforcement officers than teenagers who commit crimes that arise out of poverty.

“Hamilton County rarely ever, in its entire history, held officers accountable for their atrocities, in terms of having a district attorney prosecute them,” Mott said by phone.

When police officers kill, Mott said they are acting as “judge, jury and executioner.” These shootings also often lead to lawsuits that cost taxpayers money, she said.

Mott cited a 2022 decision in the federal appeals court that covers Tennessee, which held that continuing to shoot someone who is no longer a danger is excessive and may violate Fourth Amendment rights. An autopsy found Heard was shot 14 times, three in his back.

“Heard wasn’t messing with anybody, he was just in his car,” Mott said. “And do we serve warrants at a busy gas station?”

Batterson, who has worked for the department since 2013, was shot in the arm during the exchange. He is also one of a group of officers that was temporarily reassigned in 2022 because of past allegations of misrepresentation. Internal affairs files show he was suspended for 70 hours in 2020 after violating policies while pursuing someone who ran a red light and crashed into a home.