I am Sherry Boston,
de Kalb County District Attorney.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
I'm here today to announce a decision
related to my role in the officer involved
shooting investigation associated
with an incident last week at the site
of the future Atlanta Public Safety
Training Center located at 1327 Key Rd.
In unincorporated de Kalb county.
First, a brief facts of the brief,
a review of the facts
associated with this case.
On the morning of January 18th, 2023,
during a multi jurisdictional operation to
secure the site and remove trespassers,
a Georgia State patrol officer
was shot and critically wounded.
He was transported to the hospital
for Life saving care.
The alleged suspect in the shooting,
Manuel Teran, aged 26,
was also shot during the incident and
pronounced deceased at the scene.
An investigation into the facts,
evidence and circumstances involving
that shooting is currently underway.
Typically,
when there is an officer involved
shooting in DeKalb County's jurisdiction,
the investigation is conducted
by a law enforcement agency,
generally the Georgia Bureau
of Investigation a come.
Upon completion of that investigation,
the findings are then forwarded to
the Office of the de Kalb County
District Attorney for review
and charging determination.
That charging determination includes
a decision on which charges, if any,
should be pursued and against whom,
based on the facts,
evidence and circumstances related
to the matter.
The case is then presented to
her grand jury for indictment,
if appropriate.
In the alternative,
our office may also determine not to
pursue charges and essentially close
the case as dictated by the facts,
evidence and circumstances
surrounding the case.
Either way,
I take the review and charging
determination associated with an officer
involved shooting very seriously.
It is a decision that carries a
huge level of responsibility and
a duty to protect with integrity.
Transparency, accountability and fairness,
which brings us why we are here today.
After careful consideration,
I have decided to voluntarily recuse
the office of the DeKalb County
District Attorney from the review of
the investigative file and potential
prosecution of the officer involved
shooting involved in this case,
although there is no legal conflict
with accepting this case upon
completion of its investigation.
I believe recusal is the best
course of action related to this
element of the joint operation.
My decision is based upon several
factors including our ongoing involvement
and the multi jurisdictional task
force charged with holding those
responsible who commit crimes and
ensure a safe environment in the process.
The overreaching reasoning for
my recusal is that it is simply
the right thing to do.
It avoids the appearance of any
impropriety and is consistent with
the mission of my office and our
efforts to instill Community Trust and
confidence in our criminal justice system.
As such,
we have formally notified the
prosecuting Attorneys Council of
Georgia of our voluntary recusal
in this matter and have requested
the appointment of an independent
prosecution agency.
I have said before that the Cab
County District Attorney's
office should be a standard bearer
for prosecution and for our community
by doing what is right without fail.
I stand by that philosophy today.
We remain committed to working with our
partners on this task force as we endeavor
to bring this operation to a safe,
successful and peaceful resolution.
Thank you for your time and I'll open
up the floor now for any questions.
DA I know AG cars been vocal
about working with your office
and other offices, Fulton County.
With some of these arresting
issues related to this situation,
can you talk a little bit about more
about why recusing if you guys have
been collaborating with the state?
Well, let me be clear,
the recusal is just for the
investigation into the officer
involved shooting and the death of Mr.
Terran, which is a separate
matter altogether even had we
not been on this task force.
That case would have traditionally
come to our office.
So I reiterate that we remain
committed to the joint task
force and we will be involved
in the prosecution of all the
cases that are happening here
in unincorporated DeKalb County.
So if we if there are future
acts of violence and riots,
riots that that happened that could
fall under domestic terrorism charges,
is it fair to say that your office
would investigate and if charges
are warranted, without charges,
absolutely without fail.
We remain committed to the prosecution
of any and all cases relating to the
Atlanta Public Trade Training Facility.
The only recusal we are making today
is specifically in to the officer
involved shooting investigation. So
you remain on the cases with the
seven process, the seven protesters
that have already been
arrested, yes, absolutely
none of them are going to be
tied to the shooting at all.
I cannot comment on the facts of that
of that part of the investigation,
but what I can say.
Again this small piece which is
a large piece, the investigation
of the actual shooting of Mr.
Tehran will not be we
will not be involved in
that. Can you elaborate on,
you mentioned the couple factors of why
you're recusing yourself or the DA's
office and and part of that you said was
the relationship with the community.
Can you just highlight that again why
you feel like this is a crux point
right now for for the cab county for.
Law enforcement for the DA's office
and why being independent of this or
recusing yourself from this is essential,
that's a great question.
And let me just start by saying that
that that predates even this case.
Officer involved shootings have become
a conversation that really requires a
commitment to the Community and for
the trust to believe that when an
officer discharges their weapon in any
circumstance that that will be investigated.
Thoroughly and completely so that
the community feels that that
action was justified,
warranted and appropriate.
And if not that that person,
that officer be prosecuted under
those circumstances.
So officer involved shootings in themselves.
When I ran for DA Back in 2016,
I assured the community that I was
going to take a certain approach
on these case cases so that
whatever the outcome yielded,
that the Community could
feel that it was done.
With transparency,
accountability and fairness.
And so I'm sticking to that,
that mission today and this
becomes the first case,
the first officer involved shooting
case that this office has recused from
since I became DA in January of 2017.
And it's because I believe being
a part of the multi jurisdictional
task force puts us in a position
that it's very possible that
Community would feel that we were
involved in it and therefore
could not investigate our own.
And that's fair.
And that's why I'm choosing
to voluntarily recuse today.
Do you think since the GBI was was
involved in that task force as well,
that they could objectively
review the facts of this case?
That's a decision for that is a
question for the GBI to make.
But what I can say is our roles in officer
involved shootings are very different.
The GBI is tasked with the
collection of evidence.
The prosecuting agency is tasked
with making a decision as to
whether charges are warranted or
whether the shooting was justified.
So we have two very different.
Roles. And I'm looking solely at
the role that the prosecution
agency plays in this investigation.
Do you fear
that this might send the wrong message
to the agitators that they feel,
hey, if we don't have the county
prosecuting attorney's office, you know,
recusing herself from this case,
that it might encourage them to go back out
there and commit more acts of violence?
No, actually, just the opposite.
I hope that what this instills
with protesters on the ground is
that this will get a full fare.
Impartial and independent look,
which I think is is important for
our community and for everyone that
is mourning the death of Manuel.
Every day we deal with people
in the community that have
experienced trauma and pain.
And when I meet with anyone,
whether it's victims,
victims, families,
families that we're not charging any
accountability with and I have to
explain to them our investigation.
I always start with saying we did this
independently and we did this fairly.
You may not like the outcome,
but I want you to always believe
in how the investigation happened.
And so the message I send is I
intend for the investigation to
be impartial and therefore I am
removing myself from the situation.
But to be clear, the GBI is still
conducting the investigation,
they're just referring whatever they
find to someone different. Correct. Would
that be the the state AG or bring in outside?
No. As as you may be aware,
the law changed in as of July 1st,
all conflict or recusal cases
go directly to the Prosecuting
Attorney's Council and that Council
is is empowered to now assign
conflict counsel in every case.
So it is not the state aging
OK? Do you think the
decision to charge the activists
arrested in December with
domestic terrorism escalated
this current situation?
To the motivations of anyone under
these circumstances, all I can say is,
is that we were we will continue
to follow follow the law and the
evidence and the facts as we see
them and make appropriate charges.
In terms of prosecuting,
it's a little bit confusing
because you're involved with
the DeKalb counties involved.
The state AG is involved.
Potentially federal agencies could
get involved in prosecuting.
There's different, it's Decab county,
some stuff happened in city
of Atlanta and Fulton County.
Can you just break down how these different?
Jurisdictions will work together
who takes the lead and what the
timetable is for prosecuting,
especially those who have this
domestic terrorism charge.
So again, I can't speak to
specifics on the individual cases,
but what I can say is this multi
jurisdictional task force or nothing new.
We actually do them quite often when
we have facts and circumstances that
allow individual agencies to bring
together their expertise and making
sure that our community is safe.
We work oftentimes,
many times with the US Attorney's Office,
the FBI, the GBI, the ATF, the DEA.
I could go on and on.
As you know,
Atlanta is a large city and we
have many law enforcement agencies,
both state, federal and local that
are tasked with keeping us safe.
And we work together every day to to
make sure that that mission is followed.
All right. Well, thank you very much for
being here and you all have a great day.