Protesters Denounce Smyrna Officer’s Promotion
Activists and families showed up at Smyrna City Hall Monday evening.
STEPHANNIE STOKES / WABE
Dozens of protesters rallied at Smyrna City Hall Monday night as the city council met. They were showing opposition to the promotion of a white police officer, Kenneth Owens, who was involved in last March’s fatal shooting of Nicholas Thomas, a young black man.
“They are upset because yet another black man is dead,” protester Bonita Lacy said. “And the system keeps allowing officers, mainly white officers to get away with it.”
Standing next to Lacy, Candacie Branch explained why she joined the rally.
“It’s flabbergasting that they’re trying to promote this man to lieutenant with the accusations that he has against him,” Branch said.
Nearly a year ago, Owens and another officer arrived at the tire store where Thomas worked to serve him an arrest warrant for probation violation.
When Thomas got in a customer’s car, police say he drove it toward the officers — and that’s why Owens shot and killed him. A Cobb County grand jury ruled last July that deadly force was justified.
At the protest, Thomas’s brother, Triston Thomas, said he was trying to get away from the officers.
“What I honestly believe is that Officer Kenneth Owens made a bad mistake and he shouldn’t be getting promoted,” Tristan Thomas said. “He should get terminated. And it’s my duty to get justice for my brother and I’m not going to stop.”
The Smyrna Police Department declined to comment for this story. A federal investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
Top Stories
