Georgia Officer To Appear In Court After Deadly Shooting

A white police officer in coastal Georgia is set to make his first court appearance on a manslaughter charge after authorities say he shot a fleeing black man.

Kingsland Police Officer Zechariah Presley’s hearing will be at 2 p.m. Friday in Camden County.

Presley was charged after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reviewed his body camera recording and other evidence in the death of Anthony Green in the small south Georgia town of Kingsland.

The officer’s body-cam video has not been made public.

“We definitely need to see it,” said Atlanta lawyer Reginald Greene, who is representing the family. “These days, without the video, a lot of times what people tell you happened and what actually happened are not the same.”

Presley’s lawyer, Adrienne Browning, said her client is looking forward to his day in court and declined further comment.

At a news conference Friday, attorney Malik Shabazz said the officer was “obviously stalking Mr. Green, hunting him down in a fashion that we believe is like an animal at this point.”

“It is a rare occurrence in the United States of America where a police officer is charged with killing anyone, particularly an African-American man,” said Shabazz, who is president of Black Lawyers for Justice and is also representing the family. “That shows how strong the evidence must be.”

Presley was following a vehicle that stopped at an intersection on June 20. No one has said why the officer began following Green’s vehicle.

The driver and passenger then ran from the car, according to a statement from the investigative bureau.

Presley pursued the driver, shouting over police radios: “Got one running! Got two running!”

Presley, 26, caught up with Green, 33, making physical contact, but Green again fled, “at which time Presley fired multiple shots resulting in the death of Green,” the bureau statement said. The physical contact is described in a court affidavit as “a brief physical altercation.”

The killing has enraged family and friends of Green, a father of three who was a manager at a local fast-food restaurant.

“At first everybody was just frustrated because we had no answers,” said Green’s pastor, The Rev. Mack De’Von Knight of Refreshing Oasis Church in Kingsland. “Since there’s been a charge, they have kind of calmed down somewhat.”