Ex-officer gets 12 years in man’s fatal shooting

DECATUR, Ga. — A former Georgia police officer who was convicted of aggravated assault and other crimes in the fatal shooting of an unarmed, naked man was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison.

Robert “Chip” Olsen was responding to a call of a naked man behaving erratically outside an Atlantaarea apartment complex in March 2015 when he fatally shot 26-year-old Anthony Hill, an Air Force veteran who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD. Olsen is white and Hill was black.

Olsen was convicted of one count of aggravated assault, two counts of violating his oath of office and one count of making a false statement. Jurors acquitted him on two counts of felony murder.

DeKalb County Superior Court Judge LaTisha Dear Jackson sentenced Olsen to a total of 20 years, with 12 years to serve in prison, followed by eight years of probation.

Prosecutors had asked for 25 years in prison followed by five years on probation, while defense attorneys had asked for five years in prison.

DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said that while they didn’t get the sentence they had asked for, she’s grateful that

Olsen will spend time behind bars and will be held accountable for his actions.

“A badge, a uniform, a gun are not a license to shoot and kill with impunity,” she said.

Defense attorney Amanda Clark Palmer said in an email after the hearing that while the sentence was higher than they wanted, “we cannot say it is an unfair sentence, and we appreciate (the judge’s) thoughtfulness.”

Clark Palmer added that Olsen is remorseful about Hill’s death.

“As Ms. Olsen said today, she and Chip think about the Hills every day and Chip will think about Anthony Hill every day for the rest of his life,” she wrote, referring to a statement Olsen’s wife, Kathy, read in court.

Olsen did not address the court and was led from the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies after the sentence.

Hill’s mother, Carolyn Giummo, addressed the court, saying, “This has been an exhausting journey to get to this day, the day to seek justice for Anthony Hill.”

She and Hill’s father and sister asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence.

After the sentencing, Giummo said she would have liked him to take the stand: “I was hoping he was going to get on the stand to defend what he did, and he didn’t.”