Black Man Shot By Police In DeKalb County May Have Survived With Medical Attention, Doctor Says
Dr. Jackson Gates shows where Matthew Zadok Williams was shot by police using attorney Mawuli Davis.
Johnny Kauffman / WABE
A Black man fatally shot by police in DeKalb County was hit at least twice and may have survived the wounds if he received medical attention more quickly, a doctor hired by the family of Matthew Zadok Williams said Tuesday.
Dr. Jackson Gates, who was hired by the family, said his analysis suggests Williams bled slowly after he was shot.
“He dropped his blood pressure really, really quick, and probably was not quite dead, and could have been salvageable,” Gates said.
On April 12, DeKalb County police kicked down a door into a house where Williams had retreated. As he crouched behind a piece of furniture, officers shot at Williams multiple times. An attorney for Williams’ family, Mawuli Davis, said Williams owned the house for 15 years.
Lawyers for the family of Williams, at an emotional press conference, revealed photos of a disturbing scene inside the house showing blood on the floor and walls.
Williams was an avid reader who babysat for his nieces and nephews and liked to trade stocks. He had five older sisters.
After officers shot at Williams, they backed away from the house. A SWAT team arriving more than an hour later found him dead.
“Why couldn’t they have waited before firing the shots?” said Davis. “Once they kick the door, and then they shoot him, where was the concern about going in to see if he’s OK then? And that is so problematic.”
At least one person living in the woody neighborhood near Wesley Chapel Road and Interstate 20 called 911 to report a “seemingly homeless” man with a knife.
When officers arrived, they approached Williams near the house, and he lunged at one of them with a knife. Amid a scramble, another officer fired a shot at Williams, who initially ran away, but then returned to the scene and entered the house by breaking through a second-story window.
Davis said his and the family’s concerns are not about that initial shot at Williams after he lunged at the officer, but how the officers treated Williams in the aftermath. Williams’ family said he was in the midst of a mental health crisis.
“I just want to make clear that what’s keeping me up at night is that my brother should be alive. He should be recovering from his wounds in a hospital right now,” said Buelah Williams, a sister to Williams.
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