Georgia Police Officer Faces Trial Killing Naked Air Force Veteran

Georgia Police Officer Indicted for Murder of Unarmed Black Man
New York Times
By ALAN BLINDER
JAN. 21, 2016

Anthony Hill, a 27-year-old Air Force veteran, was in the midst of what his family described in a lawsuit as “a nonviolent mental episode.”

DECATUR, Ga. — A white police officer was indicted here Thursday on six counts, including felony murder, in the fatal shooting last year of an unarmed black man who was naked and described as acting in an erratic manner.

The indictment of Officer Robert Olsen of the DeKalb County Police Department came about two weeks after the district attorney said he would ask a grand jury to pursue criminal charges in the death of Anthony Hill, a 27-year-old Air Force veteran.

The indictment, which District Attorney Robert D. James Jr. of DeKalb County announced at a Thursday night news conference, with Mr. Hill’s family members seated in the first row, was an emotional and surprising development. It played out in this city just east of Atlanta where, it seemed, few people had expected that Officer Olsen would be charged with murder. Mr. James said a judge had issued an arrest warrant and that Officer Olsen would soon be arrested.

After the arrival of Officer Olsen, who had a Taser device and had received training about how to deal with people suffering from mental illness, witnesses said that Mr. Hill did not comply with the officer’s directions to stop his advance. Mr. Hill’s hands, they said, were raised or at his sides before Officer Olsen opened fire. Mr. Hill, his family said in a court document last year, “was unarmed, unclothed and displaying no signs of aggression at the time of the shooting, and he presented no threat to Officer Olsen or anyone else.”
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