Two of the six people arrested during a deadly drug raid were released from the East Point Jail on Friday morning and gave CBS Atlanta a first-hand account of what happened.
EAST POINT, GA -
Two of the six people arrested during a deadly drug raid were released from the East Point Jail on Friday morning and gave CBS Atlanta a first-hand account of what happened.
An East Point detective shot and killed a man during the raid. Family identified that man as 54-year-old Dwight Person.
Varick Vaughn, Person's friend and Juan Ballard, Person's nephew, were released Friday morning.
"The door busted down, and they were telling everybody to get down," Vaughn said.
East Point police said they knocked then entered the house. That's when Person made a threatening gesture toward the officer. The veteran officer, fearful of her safety, fired once, striking the man in the abdomen.
"They said he was moving or something, but he didn't do nothing. He didn't have nothing. Ain't nobody had nothing," Vaughn said.
Vaughn said they were playing video games, and Person arrived less than 10 minutes before the raid.
"We don't sell no drugs," Vaughn said.
Person's mother said he was a father of two children and served in the Army for eight years.
"He ain't bother nobody. He tried to do everything he could do for people; it bad how it happened like that," Ballard said.
The six people arrested were charged with occupying a dive.
Person's mother said she believes police killed her son for nothing.
"I want to see justice. I want it to be clear and just and not just saying, she's saying this to cover herself but she made a mistake and she need to admit to it," said Verdelle Person.
The officer who shot the man is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of a GBI investigation.
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Authorities raided the home of Clarence Walker for the second time since he spoke out against Lansing police-involved shooting death of a 17-year-old girl earlier this year.
For the second time, police have raided the house of a man who spoke out about the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old girl by a Lansing police officer. Shortly after 8 p.m. Monday, Clarence Walker's home on the 1200 block of West Michigan Avenue was surrounded with police tape, with Lansing Police Department and Michigan State Police cruisers parked in front. "We don't really know too much right now," said Kyissa Nixon, who stood among a small group of onlookers.
"They just said that they have a search warrant and the house is under investigation." "Once again, they are picking on Clarence Walker," she said.
Police sent a confidential informant to Walker's house to buy drugs the day after he spoke out at a public meeting, openly questioning whether Police Chief Teresa Szymanski and other police officials were providing meaningful answers about the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Derrinesha Clay in March.
According to a warrant obtained to search his house in August, the informant bought cocaine or crack cocaine from the house that day, July 6, as well as two more times, but an Aug. 2 raid on the house yielded only baggies of marijuana, a digital scale and a couple of antique guns.
Walker has been ordered to stand trial on a charge of maintaining a drug house. The home is owned by Walker's grandmother. Lansing police had no immediate comment about the incident.
