By: Matt Scott
Warning: this article contains descriptions of police violence.
On Wednesday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis allowed the release of body camera footage from the police killing of Deacon Johnny Hollman by former Atlanta Police Department (APD) Officer Kiran Kimbrough.
Since Hollman was killed on Aug. 11, his family has called for elected officials to release the footage of his death and said the footage showed that Kimbrough escalated the interaction needlessly.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner ruled Hollman’s death a homicide caused by the use of a Taser.
“We want to make clear that Deacon Hollman was leaving a bible study, had been visiting with his daughter and family and was on his way home to deliver dinner to his wife when he was in a minor traffic accident,” said one of the attorneys representing the Hollman family, Mawuli Davis, during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
The APD uploaded the footage to its YouTube page Wednesday morning. The entire video is just over one hour, with the first ten minutes being an abridged and clipped together version of the incident. The remainder of the video is an uncut feed of Kimbrough’s body camera from the time he arrived at the scene of the accident until he steps away to talk to a supervisor about twenty minutes after he tased Hollman.
The footage showed Hollman initially ignoring Kimbrough’s request to sign a traffic citation for the minor accident. Hollman tried to explain why he believed he was not at fault for the accident to Kimbrough and asked for the officer to call his supervisor.
“I’ll get my sergeant for you, but you’re still gonna sign this ticket,” Kimbrough told Hollman. “You’re gonna sign this ticket or I’m gonna take you to jail.”
“I suggest you sign the ticket,” the officer continued seconds later, “then you can talk to my sergeant or whoever you want to talk to, your priest, your wife, I don’t care. But you’re gonna sign it right here.”
In the footage, Hollman never directly said he will not sign the ticket, instead he continued to argue for his innocence in the traffic accident. About two minutes after Kimbrough first asked Hollman to sign the ticket, the officer grabbed the man and attempted to restrain him. “Ok, I’m gonna sign the ticket,” Hollman said immediately. “I will sign the ticket.”
“The reality is that Deacon Hollman said he’d sign the ticket. All of the training, everything, the standard operating procedures say that all [police are] seeking to do is gain compliance,” said Davis. “The compliance for this was his willingness to sign the ticket. As soon as he said, ‘I’ll sign the ticket’, it’s over. It should have been.”
However, Kimbrough did not relent. “Sign the ticket,” the officer said while continuing to restrain Hollman, making it physically impossible to sign the ticket. Eventually Kimbrough forced Hollman down to the asphalt.
“I ain’t did nothing,” Hollman cried out as Kimbrough pushed him into the ground. “Why are you hurting me like this?”
“Sign the ticket!” Kimbrough yelled while Hollman was pinned to the ground. “I’m gonna tase you, put your arms behind your back now!” Kimbrough then caused his Taser to spark in the open air using the drive-stun mode. According to Taser’s manufacturer, Axon, “drive-stun mode is not designed to cause incapacitation,” it is designed as “a pain compliance option.”
Over the next minute, Kimbrough continued to restrain Hollman. The older man repeatedly tells Kimbrough, “I can’t breathe.”
“Jesus, Jesus,” Hollman cries, “Don’t tase me.” Seconds later, Hollman said, “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”
Those were man’s last decipherable words.
After uttering those words, Hollman tried to move Kimbrough’s arm off the back of his head or neck area. The officer responded by punching Hollman twice in the head. Kimbrough then pushed his Taser into Hollmans arm, deploying it in drive-stun mode almost continuously for six seconds. Hollman went limp after being Tased and died at Grady Hospital a short while later.
“We thought the tasing was senseless, it was barbaric,” Davis said.
Johnny Hollman’s daughter Arnitra never thought she and her family would be in this position, though she has been active in movements against police violence. “I’ve marched a lot for other people, never thinking I’d have to march for my father,” she said.
The APD terminated Kimbrough after an investigation into the killing determined that the officer failed to follow department procedures by not calling for a supervisor before attempting to arrest Hollman.
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, the Hollman family called for Fulton DA Fani Willis to charge Kimbrough with murder. “Now moving forward, we need him jailed, we need him prosecuted to the fullest extent,” said Anitra Hollman.
The family and their attorneys also say the problem goes deeper than just one officer.
“When he put on that blue uniform, he also put on a culture that says our Black lives don’t matter,” Davis said of Kimbrough. “That’s what we’re dealing with is a culture, not an individual officer because what we was African American officers who came to the scene and watched an elder and not render any aid. When does that happen but as a police officer in a Black community? It doesn’t happen anywhere else.”
The family is preparing to mourn their first thanksgiving without Hollman, but they called for other community members to hold remembrance for the deacon.
“When you’re sitting at the table tomorrow, imagine that is your father,” said Arnitra Hollman.
She also called for the community take action outside of tomorrow’s remembrance.
“Move. Do something,” Arnitra Hollman pleaded during Wednesday’s press conference. “Don’t sit back and allow this to keep happening to us. Don’t allow this to keep happening to our grandfathers, our fathers, our brothers, our uncles, our sisters, our mothers. We’ve got to stop.”
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