Death by Cop 2021-2025
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Unsfored Lewis Thurmond III
Age : 27
Gender : Male
Race : Black
Date : 09/18/2021
Location : 3014 North Lincoln Trace Avenue, Edison at the Battery Apartments
City : Smyrna
County : Cobb
State : Georgia
Agency : Smyrna Police Department
Officer(s) :Not Disclosed
Cause of Death : Gunshot
Event : Killed by police during mental health crisis
OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :
On 09/18/2021, a Smyrna Police Department officer shot and killed 27-year-old Unsfored Lewis Thurmond III during a mental health crisis at the Edison at the Battery apartment complex at 3014 North Lincoln Trace Avenue in Smyrna. Police had been called specifically because Thurmond was threatening suicide while armed with a gun. He was transported to a hospital after the shooting and died from his injuries.
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Police responded at approximately 3:22 p.m. after receiving the 911 call concerning a suicidal man. Several other people were reportedly inside the apartment. Officers encountered Thurmond holding a firearm and began attempting to negotiate with him rather than immediately approaching him physically.
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According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, officers negotiated with Thurmond for several minutes. Police alleged that during those negotiations Thurmond pointed the firearm he had been holding toward the officers. One Smyrna officer then fired, striking him. Officers immediately began administering first aid before Thurmond was transported to the hospital.
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The fatal shooting was therefore the direct outcome of a police response to a mental health crisis and threatened suicide rather than an investigation of a crime. Smyrna Police spokesman Lt. Louis Defense described the officers as having been called to help Thurmond and said police had been attempting to de-escalate the encounter before the shooting.
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The shooting occurred during an extraordinary two-day period in Cobb County. Thurmond was the second person in two days fatally shot by police in the county during a call involving a suicidal person. The previous day, Cobb County police responding to another suicidal-person call shot and killed a man after an hours-long SWAT standoff in Powder Springs.
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Thurmond's family publicly questioned and challenged important aspects of the police response. His father, Lewis Thurmond Jr., told WSB-TV that his son had struggled with mental illness and questioned why police did not use a Taser or another less-lethal method instead of shooting him. His father said the family wanted answers about why the encounter ended with his son's death.
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That family response is important to the record. Although the GBI account states that Thurmond pointed his firearm toward officers, his family challenged the necessity of the resulting deadly force and specifically questioned whether police had alternatives available while responding to a person they knew was experiencing a mental health crisis.
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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation conducted the independent shooting investigation at Smyrna Police Department's request. The GBI stated that its completed case file would be submitted to the Cobb County District Attorney's Office for review.
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Despite the passage of nearly five years, the public sources located for this update still do not identify the Smyrna officer who fired the fatal shots. That prevents a reliable individual review for the shooting officer's prior or subsequent shootings, complaints, discipline, lawsuits or other misconduct.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The involved officer has not been publicly identified.
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There is, however, directly relevant history involving the Smyrna Police Department and another fatal police shooting. In 2015, Smyrna Officer Kenneth Owens shot and killed 23-year-old Nicholas Thomas while police were attempting to serve an arrest warrant for technical probation violations at the Goodyear store where Thomas worked. Thomas was inside a Maserati when Owens fired into the vehicle. Thomas's family subsequently brought a federal civil-rights lawsuit alleging excessive force and negligent hiring and retention by the City of Smyrna. The litigation ultimately reached the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
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That prior case is pertinent because it involved the same small police department and generated substantial litigation over the department's use of deadly force. The Eleventh Circuit ultimately affirmed summary judgment for Owens and the City in 2020, approximately 17 months before a Smyrna officer killed Thurmond.
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The immediate Cobb County context is even more striking: police in the county killed two people on mental health crisis calls on consecutive days. Thurmond's killing on September 18 followed the previous day's fatal Cobb County SWAT encounter involving another suicidal person, prompting contemporary local coverage specifically examining the two deaths together.
SOURCE LINKS :
https://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases/2021-09-19/gbi-investigates-officer-involved-shooting-smyrna
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/cobb-county/suicidal-man-shot-after-pointing-gun-officers-trying-help-him-police-say/EZ4NTVIDZRDT7O36ZXGJ2EM3K4/
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/smyrna-police-respond-to-shooting-invovling-an-officer
https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-investigation-underway-after-police-shooting-near-braves-stadium/HMBPMTW24VBQTD4EWT7CDOYVIU/
https://cobbcountycourier.com/2021/09/second-fatal-shooting-by-police-in-cobb-county-on-suicidal-person-call-in-two-days
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/family-man-killed-after-pointing-gun-smyrna-police-officers-speaks-out/IXIFMMKDY5FSBCWDKW6EYVB2EA/
https://www.wsbradio.com/news/local/cobb-county/suicidal-man-shot-after-pointing-gun-officers-trying-help-him-police-say/EZ4NTVIDZRDT7O36ZXGJ2EM3K4/
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca11/19-11207/19-11207-2020-04-02.html
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/smyrna-police-respond-to-shooting-invovling-an-officer
