The prosecutors who watched the fatal police shooting video of
Caroline Small had more than a century of courtroom experience — from murder cases to child molestation to rape.
Still, the violence that unfolded on the computer screen shocked them into silence. The video showed eight police bullets piercing the car windshield of the unarmed Georgia mother as she was pinned against a utility pole and surrounded by police cars.
The consensus in the courthouse conference room was that the two Glynn County police officers who pulled their triggers had committed a crime. One DA called for more investigation. A second said it was manslaughter. Another said it was aggravated assault.
Dashcam video from the shooting of Caroline Small
Several called it murder.
“We were just stunned,” said David Peterson, one of the prosecutors. “We just said, ‘That’s a killing.’ We thought the officers used improper force. There was a sense that something bad here has happened.”
Almost to a person, the prosecutors believed the officers should be indicted by a criminal grand jury. A jury trial seemed certain to follow.
What happened instead derailed the case and fundamentally shook their beliefs in the justice system and the rule of law.
OVER THE LINE: Police shootings in Georgia
