ELECTED OFFICIALS SUGGEST REFORMS

Leaders Say They Are Concerned The 'Situation Is Festering'

Saying they could not allow the city of Columbus to "slide backwards," a
group of black and minority elected officials of Muscogee County called
Friday for a series of reforms following last month's fatal shooting of an
unarmed Columbus man by a deputy sheriff.

"As elected officials, we know the heart of our city," said state Rep.
Calvin Smyre, standing beside a dozen state and local elected officials.
"When our city knows joy, we know joy. When our city knows pride, we know
pride... . But today, as our city hurts, we hurt."

At a morning press conference on the plaza level of the Government Center,
the group called for the "speedy, fair, and balanced report" of the
findings into the Kenneth B. Walker shooting from the Muscogee County
Sheriff's Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.

Walker, a 39-year-old husband and father, was fatally shot by a deputy
sheriff Dec. 10 after he and three friends were stopped on Interstate 185
in a vehicle matching one that drug agents had believed was carrying armed
men from Miami involved in narcotics. No drugs or weapons were ever
recovered in the vehicle, nor were any arrests made.

The group -- who ranged in membership from a Superior Court judge to a
state senator to school board members and city councilors -- called for
"swift action" to be taken by Muscogee County Sheriff Ralph Johnson and
District Attorney Gray Conger if the findings from the investigations
showed the shooting unjustified.

"We mean whatever it calls for in the process," Smyre said. "We understand
that there's a process we have to go through but at the same time we know
that the situation is festering."

Smyre said a swift announcement of the findings would put an end to a
groundswell of suspicion in the community -- in particular, over the yet to
be released videotape of the incident and the identity of the deputy involved.

Walker's shooting, the group emphasized, was both an unequivocal tragedy
and a symptom of a larger, community concern.

Though it has been requested in the past by a number of community groups,
Friday's call for a civilian oversight committee was the first such
recommendation by elected officials, a Columbus councilor said.

"There's no ifs, ands or buts about it," said Councilor Nathan Suber, a
former police officer. "The shooting has brought forth the need to have
this particular oversight." Suber said such a committee could be drawn from
a mix of civilians and retired law enforcement.

"We got four (councilor) votes pushing for this and we're going to try for
two," he said, adding, "We think we have a good chance on it."