On Sunday, Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, police chief Scott Freeman fired officer Taylor Saulters after the department reviewed and released video showing Saulters using his car to hit Timmy Patmon, an unarmed suspect, as he ran from police.
"After reviewing the officers’ body camera footage, and all the other facts and circumstances of this case, Chief Scott Freeman terminated the employment of Officer Taylor Saulters," the Athens-Clarke County Police Department said in a statement.
The department released video of the June 1 incident, in which Saulters can be seen driving after a suspect fleeing on foot from he and his partner. Saulters initially turns left to try to block the suspect, but the man dodges the car. The suspect then continues running down the street, at which point Saulters drives to the right and hits the suspect with the front right of his police car.
The man who was hit, identified as Timmy Patmon, rolls up on the hood of the car and falls to the pavement. Saulters and his partner, officer Hunter Blackmon, who had been chasing the suspect on foot, arrest Patmon as a group of angry onlookers gather around the arresting officers.
The good news is that Patmon seems to have been only nominally injured and is making a full recovery, and the Athens-Clarke County Police moved quickly and with a lot of transparency to make the situation right with the people they serve. They also fired a person who is clearly unqualified and dangerous. The bad news however, is that according to Fox 5 Atlanta, Taylor Saulters got a brand new job on Monday, only one day after being fired.
Taylor Saulters is now a sheriff’s deputy for Oglethorpe County. Oglethorpe County Sheriff David Gabriel sounds like a real … something.
Sheriff David Gabriel said on Facebook that Saulters asked "if our citizens supported law enforcement." Gabriel said he'd explain his hiring decision to county residents, but "wouldn't worry" about questions from outsiders.
Saulters’ lawyer Philip Holloway explained to reporters that the fact that Saulters “received multiple offers of employment” was a sign of how unjust his client’s firing had been.
“This is a testament to the fact that seasoned veteran law enforcement officials recognize the lawfulness of my client’s actions and the injustice of his termination,” Holloway’s statement to Channel 2 Action News said.
It’s a “testament” to the idea that there are more bad apples than good ones in the Georgia law enforcement apparatus, and finding justice for large segments of our society is still a long way off. You can watch the inciting incident below the fold.
Warning: it’s graphic.