SHERIFF SPEAKS

Johnson says traffic stop that led to shooting was not random or the result
of racial profiling

After more than five weeks of silence, details of the first official
investigation into the Dec. 10 fatal shooting of Kenneth B. Walker by a
sheriff's deputy were released to the public Friday by Muscogee County
Sheriff Ralph Johnson.

Johnson's five-page synopsis of the events that led to the incident named
Deputy David Glisson as the officer whose weapon fired the fatal shot that
killed Walker, but made no determination whether the incident was
accidental, justifiable or a possible criminal act.

"To only call this incident a tragedy would be an understatement," Johnson
said. "To say that all of us in law enforcement are shocked, saddened and
extremely regretful cannot adequately express our feelings. I am determined
to do everything that I can to prevent this from happening again."

Walker, 39, was one of four occupants of a gray GMC Yukon stopped by
sheriff's deputies on Interstate 185 at 8:58 p.m. As the four men were being
removed from the vehicle, Glisson's MP-5 tactical sub-machine gun fired two
shots, one of which struck Walker in the forehead, Johnson said.

Deputies assisting the Metro Narcotics Task Force had been told the Yukon's
occupants might be armed, the sheriff said.

Apartment surveillance

The incident began after task force agents launched a surveillance of
suspected drug dealers operating from a unit at NorthWoods Apartments, 5000
Armour Road. About 90 minutes before the fatal incident, an informant
working with the task force reported that a man leaving the apartment had
obtained drugs. Michael Powell, 31, was followed to a restaurant on Wynnton
Road, where agents charged him with trafficking in cocaine after finding
$6,370 worth of crack cocaine in his car, Johnson said.

At 8 p.m., four members of the Sheriff's Special Response Team were called
in to assist Metro agents in a search of the apartment of Darrell Jackson,
32, -- also identified on police reports as Darren Jackson -- and Thomas
Randall, 33. While waiting for the search warrant, a gray GMC Yukon with
four people inside drove into the apartment complex with Kenneth Walker
sitting in the right rear passenger seat, the sheriff said.

The Metro informant told the agents the Yukon matched the description of a
Yukon driven by the Miami man who supplied Jackson with cocaine, Johnson
said.

The Yukon stayed a few minutes, then left the complex -- followed by a
surveillance team -- and returned a short time later, the sheriff said. A
man seated in the left rear passenger seat left the vehicle carrying a
package wrapped in plastic, met with Jackson outside the apartment, then
carried the package into the apartment. The informant told agents the man
looked like one of the Miami dealers, Johnson said.

Several minutes later, the other three men in the Yukon also left the
vehicle and went into the apartment, where they remained for about 15
minutes, then returned to their vehicle and drove away, the sheriff said.

Traffic stop

The sheriff's deputies in two marked patrol units assisting Metro were asked
to stop the vehicle, which they did on I-185 between Manchester Expressway
and Macon Road near the Edgewood underpass, he said.

"As the occupants of the Yukon were being removed from the vehicle, Kenneth
Walker was shot by Deputy David Glisson at approximately 8:58 p.m.," Johnson
said.

The investigation showed Glisson's weapon discharged twice from an automatic
setting, with Walker declared dead at The Medical Center at 2:25 a.m. the
next morning, he said.

Johnson did not name the other occupants of the Yukon. The night of the
incident, investigators detained Yukon owner Warren Beaulah, Anthony Smith
and Daryl Ransom, releasing them without charge shortly after Walker died.

Attorney Dwayne L. Brown, of Montgomery, Ala., who has been retained to
represent Beaulah, Smith and Ransom, did not return a telephone request for
comment about the sheriff's report.

Chris Hosey, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said
Brown had agreed to allow his three clients to speak with investigators next
week.

Apartment arrests

Johnson said almost two hours after the shooting incident, agents armed with
a search warrant raided the apartment of Jackson and Randall, where they
found $300 worth of crack cocaine and $2,400 worth of powder cocaine. Both
men were charged with possessing cocaine with intent to distribute and
possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, with Jackson also charged with
possessing a firearm during a crime. Both men later pleaded not guilty to
the charges. Jackson is being held without bond and Randall was ordered held
in lieu of $15,000 bond in Muscogee County Jail.

Independent probe

After detailing the steps leading up to and immediately following the
shooting incident, Johnson said his investigation has been forwarded to the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which has launched a formal probe.

The sheriff responded for the first time to speculation by some concerned
leaders who characterized the incident as an example of racial profiling --
a law enforcement stop of a vehicle based solely on the race of its
occupants.

"This was not a racially profiled random traffic stop," Johnson said.

The sheriff also said he had faced a dilemma for more than a month pitting
his desire to disclose the facts his investigation discovered against the
desire not to "do anything that would interfere with the investigation being
conducted by the GBI."

After remaining quiet, for which some community leaders have criticized the
sheriff, Johnson said he decided to make his investigation's facts public.

But further action by the sheriff must await the results of the GBI's probe,
he said, including an administrative decision as to Glisson's fate.

"Upon completion of this investigation, I assure the citizens of Muscogee
County that I will take appropriate action in this matter," Johnson said.

The sheriff's office has not had a shooting incident in more than 10 years,
and no shooting-related death in more than 20 years, he said. Glisson has
not been involved in a shooting incident during his 20-year career with the
department, Johnson said.

"As a life-long citizen of Muscogee County, and in my 22 years of law
enforcement, I have never experienced such a tragedy as this," said Johnson,
who pledged to do everything he can to help "heal, nurture and restore
tranquility" to the community and prevent such an incident from happening
again.

"I assure you that nothing in this investigation has been covered up.
Everything has been and will be exposed to the GBI and FBI," he said.

Deputy on leave

Deputy Glisson, who remains on administrative leave with pay, could not be
reached for comment. Attorney Richard Hagler, who represents Glisson, said
neither he nor his client would comment about the sheriff's report or the
ongoing GBI investigation.

"At this point, he is not going to talk to media about it at all," Hagler
said. "He is, has been and continues to be tremendously distraught and upset
at what happened. This was a trauma to Kenneth Walker's family and to David
Glisson and his family."

The sheriff's department also continued its refusal to allow reporters
access to Glisson's personnel file, which has been requested under the
Georgia Open Records Act. Chief Deputy Jimmy Griffin said the file remains
closed to public access because a criminal investigation is still in
progress.

Ledger-Enquirer files include a report that Deputy Glisson and another
deputy were suspended in October 1991, following a complaint of excessive
violence. After an investigation into the allegations brought by the husband
arrested in September 1991, following a domestic violence incident, Sheriff
Gene Hodge ordered Glisson suspended for a week without pay for failure to
file a thorough report of the incident. The other deputy was suspended
without pay for three days.

That incident did not involve a firearm. It followed a complaint filed by
the arrested man's attorney alleging his client was hit in the head and
face, and his head was slammed against the patrol car. The investigation
found no proof that the force used was excessive, Hodge reported.

Community reaction

Local NAACP President Edward DuBose said Friday Johnson should have fired
Glisson immediately, based on information available to him within the first
24 hours of the shooting.

Citing a source he refused to name, DuBose said, "The officer should not be
on administrative leave with pay, considering the information the sheriff
has in his possession."

"I defy Sheriff Johnson to state publicly that he did not have information
that this officer intentionally shot Mr. Walker," said DuBose, promising to
reveal his source next week.

National Action Network state chairman Antonio Carter said the information
disclosed Friday by the sheriff did not change the fact that an unarmed man
was shot to death by a deputy, and no drugs or weapons were recovered from
the vehicle or its occupants.

"If they believed someone in the vehicle was carrying weapons or drugs,
there's a process and procedure in how you carry out a felony stop of a
vehicle," Carter said. "If they felt their lives were in danger, they should
have taken them out of the vehicle one by one."

Reached at his Capitol office Friday night, state Rep. Calvin Smyre called
Johnson's disclosures today "a step in the right direction."

"It cleared up a lot of things for me," Smyre said. "But at the same time,
it doesn't get to the heart of what we're after -- and that's the findings."

Smyre said he hoped that once the GBI's findings were released to the
District Attorney's office, the videotape of the incident will be released.

"You see incidents all over America -- you see someone coming before a
microphone giving updates on the status of an investigation, and for us not
to reveal any type of information -- that will not work," said the Columbus
lawmaker.

The Rev. William Howell, president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in
Columbus, said Johnson's delay in releasing information has damaged the
community and his political future.

"He has eroded the trust and safety of the citizens of the community and has
called into question his credibility and ability to function as a top law
enforcement officer," Howell said. "And for this, he shall pay at the ballot
box."