Georgia police under investigation for shooting at 5 kids during traffic stop
(The AEGIS Alliance) – WAYCROSS, GEORGIA – Police in Waycross, Georgia fired their guns multiple times on Saturday morning at five black kids between the ages of 9 and 16 years old.
The children who are all siblings were driving through their Waycross, Georgia neighborhood when police pulled them over for a traffic stop.
One of the children, a 12-year-old girl, said her older 15 and 16-year-old brothers became scared, so they stopped the car and told their younger siblings to run home, WJXT reported. She said an officer began firing gunshots after she exited the vehicle.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation into the incident and said that after the younger kids ran away, the car kept moving forward towards a different officer. That officer fired gunshots at the vehicle while the 15 and 16-year-olds were still inside. The teenagers then hopped out of the car while it was still moving and cops placed them under arrest.
“It went past my face. I could have gotten shot in my face, but they shot the swing,” the 9-year-old boy told WJXT.
None of the children were hit by the gunshots, but there was blood running down the 15-year-old’s face while he sat in the police vehicle.
“They’re chasing kids home shooting at them for no reason. They get out of the car, all we hear are gunshots. The police are behind them shooting at them,” the father of the five children, Dominique Goodwin said in a revealing Facebook video.
The teenagers who were arrested were charged with various weapons and traffic violations.
The 16-year-old facing a charge of possessing a handgun while bring a minor, aggravated assault on a police officer, driving recklessly, a stop sign violation, and driving without a license. The 15-year-old is facing a charge for possessing a handgun while being a minor, felony obstruction of an officer, and attempting to or removing an officer’s firearm.
UPDATE: The two officers involved in the incident have been placed on paid leave, CBS News reports. Paid leave is another way of saying the cops are going on a paid vacation.
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
