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Devonte Dawayne Brown

Age : 28

Gender : Male

Race : Black

Date : 08/18/2021

Location : Powder Springs Road near South Loop

City : Marietta

County : Cobb

State : Georgia

Agency : Cobb County Police Department; Cobb County Sheriff’s Office

Officer(s) :Ian McConnell

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during arrest

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/18/2021, Cobb County Police Department Officer Ian McConnell killed 28-year-old Devonte Dawayne Brown following a traffic stop and police pursuit in Marietta. Police initiated the encounter at approximately 3:30 p.m. after an officer reported seeing Brown driving erratically near South Loop and Powder Springs Road. Initial reports incorrectly described Brown’s vehicle as stolen, but then-Cobb Police Chief Tim Cox subsequently clarified that the reason police attempted to stop Brown was his driving.
Brown initially stopped his vehicle, but then drove away. Cobb County police officers and Cobb County Sheriff’s Office deputies pursued him and attempted to stop him. Officers eventually used multiple police vehicles to box Brown’s car in on Powder Springs Road.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation initially reported that Brown struck several police vehicles while attempting to drive away and that one officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries. The critical final portion of the encounter became substantially clearer more than two years later, when attorneys representing Brown’s family publicly released McConnell’s body-camera recording.
The body-camera video shows Brown’s vehicle surrounded by police vehicles with its airbags deployed. McConnell stood outside Brown’s driver-side window with his handgun pointed toward him and repeatedly ordered Brown to raise his hands. Brown moved the vehicle backward and forward, striking police vehicles that were blocking him in.
McConnell then fired 12 rounds through the driver-side window at Brown. Several other officers were positioned around Brown’s vehicle but did not fire. Brown’s attorneys later emphasized that distinction, arguing that the decisions of the other officers not to shoot undermined the contention that Brown presented an immediate threat requiring deadly force.
After firing, McConnell requested emergency medical assistance and reported multiple gunshot wounds. He also stated that firefighters might be needed to extricate Brown from the vehicle. Brown was transported to a hospital, where he died.
Investigators recovered a handgun from inside Brown’s vehicle. However, the GBI did not allege that Brown fired the gun, pointed it at an officer, reached for it, or held it during the confrontation. Brown’s family's attorneys have consequently described him as unarmed during the shooting despite the presence of a firearm elsewhere inside the vehicle.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigated McConnell’s shooting and completed its investigation in January 2022. The case was forwarded to the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, but the disposition remained largely outside public view for nearly two years.
A Cobb County grand jury ultimately reviewed the shooting in November 2023 and declined to recommend criminal charges against McConnell. The body-camera footage became public through Brown’s attorneys around the same time rather than through an earlier law-enforcement release.
Brown’s family and attorneys strongly disputed the conclusion that McConnell’s shooting was justified. Civil-rights attorney Harry Daniels argued that Brown had been effectively trapped by police vehicles and posed no immediate threat when McConnell opened fire. The attorneys emphasized that Brown’s airbags had deployed, his vehicle was surrounded, and multiple other officers facing the same situation did not fire.
In February 2024, Brown’s family publicly challenged the manner in which Cobb County District Attorney Flynn Broady’s office handled the grand-jury proceedings. Attorneys Bernarda Villalona, Chantel Cherry-Lassiter and Crystal Carey alleged that the DA had presented incomplete evidence and questioned the unusually rapid grand-jury presentation. The family called for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to appoint a special prosecutor and also sought federal intervention.
The family’s attorneys joined the Georgia NAACP in calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Brown’s killing as well as other fatal Cobb County police shootings. They specifically compared Brown’s case with the fatal 2020 police shooting of 17-year-old Vincent Truitt and criticized what they described as inadequate local accountability for police killings.
On 02/28/2024, Brown’s family filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against McConnell. The lawsuit alleges that McConnell violated Brown’s constitutional rights by using excessive and deadly force when Brown posed no immediate threat to officers. McConnell was the sole defendant named in the lawsuit.
The complaint argues that Brown was boxed in and that McConnell’s decision to fire 12 rounds was unnecessary. The family acknowledged that a vehicle can constitute a deadly weapon under some circumstances but contended that the circumstances visible in the body-camera recording did not establish that Brown was using his vehicle in a manner that justified killing him.
Brown was a father. Later national reporting described him as the father of four children, while attorneys and Georgia NAACP representatives subsequently described him publicly as the father of five. His biological aunt and adoptive mother, Monica Brown, questioned the necessity of killing him from the beginning and continued seeking accountability after the body-camera recording became public.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Ian Joseph McConnell joined the Cobb County Police Department in January 2016 and had been with the department for approximately five and a half years when he killed Brown. McConnell remained employed by Cobb County after the shooting and was still working for the police department when Brown’s family challenged the grand-jury outcome and filed its federal lawsuit in 2024.
McConnell fired all 12 rounds directed at Brown during the final confrontation. Although several other officers were positioned around the boxed-in vehicle, the available body-camera footage and subsequent reporting identify McConnell as the only officer who fired.
The GBI completed its investigation in January 2022. A Cobb County grand jury later declined to recommend criminal prosecution of McConnell, and he was not criminally charged.
The 2024 federal civil-rights lawsuit directly names McConnell and alleges that his shooting of Brown constituted excessive and deadly force in violation of Brown’s constitutional rights. The lawsuit therefore represents a formal unresolved challenge to McConnell’s conduct notwithstanding the earlier grand-jury decision not to pursue criminal charges.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases/2021-08-19/gbi-investigates-officer-involved-shooting-cobb-county
https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/family-attorney-releases-bodycam-footage-of-fatal-cobb-police-shooting-in-2021/VFVIFE3G4NCWXN3MWYYSMLE63M/
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2023/11/29/bodycam-video-showing-deadly-cobb-county-police-shooting-released-by-family-attorneys/
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/cobb-county-police-faces-scrutiny-after-grand-jury-clears-officer-in-deadly-shooting
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/no-charges-cobb-county-officer-involved-2021-shooting-death-28-year-old-man/OZXERE37HRAMBNORSVZFWBJG74/
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/06/family-devonte-brown-accuses-cobb-da-presenting-evidence-grand-jury-too-quickly/
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/devonte-brown-cobb-county-police-officer-death-lawsuit
https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/family-of-man-killed-by-cobb-police-officer-files-federal-lawsuit/5UYJGXCEURDBNLRZ3BZRDFSWMU/
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/devonte-brown-cobb-county-police-shooting-death-lawsuit
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/28/watch-live-family-man-shot-killed-by-cobb-county-police-officer-files-lawsuit/
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/georgia-naacp-calls-for-doj-to-intervene-in-cobb-county-police-shootings
https://www.mdjonline.com/news/cobb-police-identify-man-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting/article_2c1d0f9a-00f2-11ec-bb77-8f5c6e0a8a2a.html
https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/man-killed-by-police-after-traffic-stop-in-cobb-county/7Z6Z6E5J5ZB7JPHZ5M3H2B7WDE/
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/gbi-releases-identity-man-shot-killed-cobb-police/85-33707a35-bafd-4074-8e77-d3c36e18965e
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/attorney-2021-shooting-death-erractic-driver-cobb-police-devonte-dawayne-brown/85-6777e945-ea0f-44bf-9085-309b47621ed0