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SignUp Now!Lea says when Dameon answered the door, the group demanded to know information about a young missing girl. The group was apparently looking for an individual named Josiah, who lived next door to the Shepards but left that neighborhood a month earlier. Lea says Dameon identified himself by name several times, but the group continued to press for information that he did not have.
Among the people on the Shepard’s porch demanding answers was a person carrying an assault weapon and another with a shotgun, Lea wrote in the letter. Also part of the group was an off-duty member of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office. Lea says Deputy J.T. Kita, who works in the detention division, was in uniform and armed. When Dameon attempted to shut the door after telling the group who he was, Lea says the New Hanover County deputy stuck his foot in the door and demanded to come inside.
Ms. Shepard woke up during this commotion and also tried to get the group to leave her property, indicating the person they were looking for did not live there. Once again, according to Lea, the group continued to question the Shepards, demanding to come inside. The deputy also blocked Ms. Shepard from closing her door.
"He just said ‘I’m going to step inside, close the door and talk to you guys.’ And I said, ‘no you’re not.’ He had his foot on the threshold of my door, holding the door open and he said it again, he said ‘I’m going to step inside close the door and I’ll talk to you,’ when I said ‘no you’re not.’”
Lea notes during this time in which Dameon was identifying himself, a sign bearing his name and celebrating his pending graduation from Laney High School was also on the front lawn.
“It appears Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William Bryan were following in ‘hot pursuit’ of a burglary suspect with solid first-hand probable cause,” Barnhill wrote to a Glynn County police captain in a three-page letter. “Given the fact Arbery initiated the fight, at the point Arbery grabbed the shotgun [that Travis McMichael was holding], under Georgia law, McMichael was allowed to use deadly force to protect himself.”
Barnhill’s prosecution of Pearson was part of a larger campaign by then-Secretary of State (and now Governor) Brian Kemp, Georgia’s top elections official, to make vigilance against voter fraud a priority. I was alerted to the case while reporting on voter suppression efforts heading into the 2016 presidential election. Voting rights groups flagged Barnhill’s prosecution as part of an obvious and well-orchestrated attempt to intimidate black voters. After all, Pearson was accused of simply showing a young woman how to use a voting machine, not of influencing her vote.
It was an especially uncommon prosecution: At the time, only 10 of the 154 illegal voter assistance investigations in the previous three years in Georgia had been referred to a prosecutor. Most were closed without a ruling or dismissed. But Barnhill’s office was relentless in pursuing what they saw as an important case, and Pearson’s prosecution spanned two trials and two years.
Abery was shot dead on February 23. The last theft in Brunswick was reported on January 1, when a 9-mm pistol was stolen from an unlocked vehicle outside the McMichaels' home.
I agree. Video is better than video.I love video. so much better than eye witness video.
Jeremiah Thompson, 21, was charged for armed to the terror of the public wearing a mask and hood in a public place.
RIP Zack