GA - Pastor Jonathan Ayers, 28, killed by LE in Toccoa drug sting, 1 Sept 2009

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  • #21
Hmmm...now they aren't even mentioning a struggle OR an officer fearing for his life. Interesting how the security video changes the whole story.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/minister-132682.html?cxtype=rss_news_81960

While the minister went inside to use the ATM, police said, the officers waited by the pumps in an unmarked black Cadillac Escalade. Once Ayers returned to his car, officers identified themselves and ordered him to open his door, police said. Ayers backed up and sped away while police shot at him twice, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. Ayers crashed a short distance away and died later following surgery at Stephens County Hospital in Toccoa.
 
  • #22
I almost could not find this thread again as I had not saved it.

I was hoping to see more information coming out. This cannot be swept under the rug. My late husband was retired LE and would never have condoned this sort of thing. It is the questionable police officers who make the good ones look bad when they pull something of this nature.

IMO, it was a dangerous situation for innocent people when LE drew their weapons as they did and started advancing toward Jonathan Ayers vehicle. As was stated in the article, there was even another customer at the gas pumps. No shots had to be fired. I just cannot be on the side of the officers on this one.

I wonder how old these plainclothes officers were. I hate to say it, but I have seen some young officers today that are just too gung ho and out to be the big tough guys saving the world. It is this type who get their partners killed. They want to act too quickly.

GB Jonathan's wife, unborn baby, family, and friends. May he rest in peace.

JMO, MOO
 
  • #23
I'm not sure if this has already been posted or not, but take a look at what the victim's(Ayers)brother-in-law(Matt Carpenter)had to say in the article below.....

"Carpenter said the family received conflicting reports when they were contacted by authorities, first being told Ayers was in a traffic accident. And then, authorities told the family, Ayers had been shot.

"We tried to get details, and there wasn't much," said Carpenter. "They weren't letting Abby [Ayers' wife] back to see him yet. All we knew was that it was a random shooting. Once we were out at the hospital, we were told he had been shot by a drug dealer"

"It was later in the evening, according to Carpenter, that agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation revealed that Ayers was involved in an officer-related shooting."


http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=222898
 
  • #24
sleepingheart, thanks for the update. This just keeps getting more and more interesting.
 
  • #25
  • #26
i always wonder why they think people are just going to stop for undercovers?! i would be one that got shot, because i'm telling you, someone gets out on me like that, you bet your butt i'm trying to get the hell out of there. this is just ridiculous, if he won't stop for you, take his license down and go to his home. this is very tragic.
 
  • #27
sleepingheart said:
I'm not sure if this has already been posted or not, but take a look at what the victim's(Ayers)brother-in-law(Matt Carpenter)had to say in the article below.....

"Carpenter said the family received conflicting reports when they were contacted by authorities, first being told Ayers was in a traffic accident. And then, authorities told the family, Ayers had been shot.

"We tried to get details, and there wasn't much," said Carpenter. "They weren't letting Abby [Ayers' wife] back to see him yet. All we knew was that it was a random shooting. Once we were out at the hospital, we were told he had been shot by a drug dealer"

"It was later in the evening, according to Carpenter, that agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation revealed that Ayers was involved in an officer-related shooting."


http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=222898
Click to expand...

Wow. LE lied to the family quite a few times before finally admitting the truth. Everything about this story is just so wrong. Over-reaction from LE, covered by lies and attempted cover-ups.......that department needs Mr. Clean to come through, because they STINK.

joga said:
i always wonder why they think people are just going to stop for undercovers?! i would be one that got shot, because i'm telling you, someone gets out on me like that, you bet your butt i'm trying to get the hell out of there. this is just ridiculous, if he won't stop for you, take his license down and go to his home. this is very tragic.
Click to expand...

They'd surely have to shoot me, too. One of the crimes I heard about years ago (maybe decades, LOL) was of a criminal who beat on someone's door in the middle of the night, yelling POLICE!. The homeowner opened the door and was shot to death.

Personally, if I see scruffy looking dudes in torn jeans and dirty t-shirts aiming guns at me while I am trying to exit a parking lot, I don't know if I would even HEAR anything they were saying.....and as far as showing me their badges, heck those things are readily available as counterfeits. My first instinct would be to drive away and dial 911.....it wouldn't occur to me to hang around to see if these wild men were going to kill me or not!
 
  • #28
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  • #30
Pastor Jonathan Paul Ayers' wrote a blog entry, entitled "Tomorrow", which turned out to be his last. Also, before his last blog entry, Ayers posted an article called, "10 Things I Can't Believe". It included the following quote.....

“I can't believe that I am going to (be) a dad. … I want to apologize to the whole world because this kids going to be one messed up, Jesus loving, church going, Georgia fan if there has ever been one. I pray and hope that is at least for the first two things!”

To read the above info, plus more on his blog and what he wrote in it, see the link below:

http://www.andersonindependentmail....a-pastor-shot-botched-drug-operation-man-str/
 
  • #31
Crimesider is proud to present renowned crime blogger Steve Huff to the website. Steve is well known online for his shoe-leather reporting and insightful analysis on crimes around the country.

Story contributed by Steve Huff.

LAVONIA, Ga. (CBS) Pastor Jonathan Ayers had a question for paramedics as they treated him for bullet wounds on Sept. 2. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ayers asked, "Who shot me?"

Ayers' words give rise to questions about what really happened in the moments leading up to a law enforcement officer's bullet putting an end to the 29-year-old minister's life. Did Jonathan Ayers know that the men who swarmed his car were Stephens County sheriff’s deputies?

More at link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/01/crimesider/entry5279161.shtml

O/T: Steve, congrats on the new gig!
 
  • #32
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  • #34
The link below contains some of the latest on this case; however, it does not contain a whole lot of new info. It does say that the GBI said today(Wednesday-09/16/09)that they are still waiting on crime lab results. The article also identifies the woman in the car with Ayers & describes her charges & the reason she was in the car with Pastor Ayers.

http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=223269

Below you will find the link to Jonathan Ayers' online blog. It has entries from him & from his wife.

http://jonathanayers.blogspot.com/
 
  • #35
sleepingheart said:
The link below contains some of the latest on this case; however, it does not contain a whole lot of new info. It does say that the GBI said today(Wednesday-09/16/09)that they are still waiting on crime lab results. The article also identifies the woman in the car with Ayers & describes her charges & the reason she was in the car with Pastor Ayers.

http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=223269

Below you will find the link to Jonathan Ayers' online blog. It has entries from him & from his wife.

http://jonathanayers.blogspot.com/
Click to expand...

I really wonder what tests results the GBI is waiting on. We already know this man was shot to death while attempting to flee from plain-clothed armed individuals who were rushing his car and screaming at him.

Are they just waiting to see which cop shot the fatal shot? Because I can't think of any test result that would make the undercover cops actions "ok."
This man was murdered.
 
  • #36
  • #37
The woman who was in the Rev. Jonathan Ayers' car moments before he was shot by undercover drug agents in Toccoa on Sept. 1 is refuting reports that Ayers was involved in illegal activities.

"I'm an addict," 26-year-old Kayla Barrett of Clarkesville admitted Tuesday, saying that Ayers was ministering to her on the day of his death.

"I've known him awhile - about six or seven years," she said, calling him "a pastor and a friend."

She said that, over time, Ayers had been lecturing her and trying to get her to straighten out her life and to get off drugs.

"I've been doing drugs for nine years," Barrett said, noting that she is addicted to cocaine - "crack, basically."

"He told me I was too young to be living like I was living," she said. "He didn't want me to waste my life."

Barrett said Ayers saw her walking from the Exxon station across from the Shell station (where he eventually was shot) back toward Relax Inn, where she and her fiancéÂ/ were staying.

Since she had experienced a miscarriage 11 days prior and she visibly was having difficulty walking, Barrett said Ayers offered her a ride back to the motel.



"I was in his car for probably about five to seven minutes - and it was probably 20-30 minutes before he got shot," Barrett said.

"When I got in the car, I was telling him about my recent miscarriage," she said.

Barrett said she was paying $30 per day to stay at Relax Inn and, on Sept. 1, was three days behind. Her fiancÂ/é, who was staying there with her, had hurt his back and was unable to work, she said.

She said they had been doing "odd jobs" and "yard work" to make money.

Barrett said she asked Ayers if he could help her out with the back rent, and that he gave "all the money he had on him" - $23.


More at Link:
http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/articles/2009/09/18/news/top_stories/02topstory.txt


I'm so grateful that all of this is finally coming out. The police are still spreading contradictory stories, but hearing from Kayla is giving the family some peace.
 
  • #38
Pandora said:
"I was in his car for probably about five to seven minutes - and it was probably 20-30 minutes before he got shot," Barrett said.

"When I got in the car, I was telling him about my recent miscarriage," she said.

Barrett said she was paying $30 per day to stay at Relax Inn and, on Sept. 1, was three days behind. Her fiancÂ/é, who was staying there with her, had hurt his back and was unable to work, she said.

She said they had been doing "odd jobs" and "yard work" to make money.

Barrett said she asked Ayers if he could help her out with the back rent, and that he gave "all the money he had on him" - $23.


More at Link:
http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/articles/2009/09/18/news/top_stories/02topstory.txt


I'm so grateful that all of this is finally coming out. The police are still spreading contradictory stories, but hearing from Kayla is giving the family some peace.
Click to expand...

My suspicions about the actions of the undercover agents has increased now that I've read this article. If Kayla had exited the car 15 to 20 minutes before Pastor Ayers was killed, there is no way the agents can claim that it happened too fast, or that they didn't have a chance to PEACEFULLY contact the pastor.

I'm so glad this woman is defending Ayers, and that her reports of his last actions on earth were that he was caring, concerned and generous. God bless him.....God bless his wife and family.
 
  • #39
kgeaux said:
My suspicions about the actions of the undercover agents has increased now that I've read this article. If Kayla had exited the car 15 to 20 minutes before Pastor Ayers was killed, there is no way the agents can claim that it happened too fast, or that they didn't have a chance to PEACEFULLY contact the pastor.

I'm so glad this woman is defending Ayers, and that her reports of his last actions on earth were that he was caring, concerned and generous. God bless him.....God bless his wife and family.
Click to expand...

ITA. I am also grateful that this woman wasn't bullied into lying about Ayers in exchange for dropping the drug charges. She is very brave to come out and admit all of this in the papers.

I hope she can get clean so that his efforts weren't a total waste. He is holding her baby in heaven, praying for her to save her own life. I hope she can do it.
 
  • #40
I glad about that as well, angelmom.

Jonathan certainly did not have to die and I am so pleased that this young woman told the truth about being an addict. Now I want to see just what is done about this.
 
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