Elderly Black Man Awarded $100 Million By Jury After Atlanta Police Tased Him Leaving Him a Quadriplegic
The incident between Atlanta Police Department officer Jon Grubbs and Blasingame, who was 65 years old at the time started with panhandling.
“He was panhandling and the police, of course, rolled up on him, chased him and then ran after him,” Ven Johnson said, who is Blasingame’s attorney.
Blasingame’s legal team says the officer struck him in his back as he was about 10 feet away.
“Since he’s not under arrest, he can run or do whatever he wants to do,” Johnson said. “Jerry then fell again, face forward, face planted in smashing his head, multiple facial fractures, brain injury and broke his neck.”
Body camera footage shows Blasingame body unconscious and motionless. Grubbs’ police record shows he’s been on the force since 2014 and is still employed with APD.
“Do you really think that it’s a good idea to have somebody that’s $100 million liability on your force still interacting with the citizens?” Gerald Griggs said.
Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs, a lawyer, believes the verdict may cause APD to look at the way it trains its officers.
“Given that there was no call for service on this situation, they could have handled it differently,” Griggs said. It sends a strong message from the citizens that live in the northern district of Georgia, a part of which is in Fulton County in Atlanta, that they’re sick of this and they want change.”
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