Gillingham was a hard working
man and I missed him.
Mr. Lewis didn't rob a bank.
No, he wasn't fleeing some domestic
violence situation. He wasn't armed. No.
He said he was stopping them for a
light. The tail light was out.
Put your hand.
You can hear the gunshot,
but you can also automatically hear
Thompson saying put your hands up,
but he's already dead.
Hands up, you can hear the trooper unbuckle
his seat belt, and then
immediately you hear a gunshot.
Alright, put your hands up,
put your hands up, James up.
This is the scene today
and it's the only view we
had on the night of the shooting.
That's because the only camera
here was the one on the dashboard
of the troopers patrol car.
It didn't capture the shooting
which took place over here.
All we had to go on was the sound of
a single gunshot and the word of the
only man to survive the encounter.
And the only person who can
tell the story of the
actual shooting is the trooper, because Mr.
Lewis is dead because Mr. Lewis is dead.
The most important moment is just
out of frame just out of frame,
and we'll never know the truth
and never know the truth.
I had to see this man, and,
you know, just just scared.
I'm still cold,
and so I don't wanna say a whole lot.
The Georgia State Patrol still boasts 3
decades later that it was the first agency
in the nation to install dash cameras.
As a Highway Patrol, most interactions
with the public take place in
front of the cruiser's hood.
But not most shootings other than
those two incidents every releasable
Georgia State patrol video from
shootings over the last five years
fails to show the actual shooting
within the frame of the Dash camera.
That's bad.
Put it down.
Even when a gunman shot a trooper,
the dashcam missed the shooting.
Out of the 11 recordings GSP
gave us through open records,
the dashcam failed to capture the
shootings in nine videos. Body.
We don't have. That Homeland
Security asked the Georgia State
Patrol for its body camera policy.
Just last year,
Colonel Chris Wright responded.
We currently do not utilize body cameras.
Each vehicle is equipped with camera systems.
The Georgia Department of Public Safety
quickly developed a policy in the last year,
but has body cameras only for
troopers assigned to the state
Capitol and Jekyll Island.
While truck enforcement troopers have
expressed interest in body cameras,
internal emails from earlier this year.
Show no other units nor the
command staff have expressed
interest in anyone else using them.
Handsome now police agencies large and
small have body cameras on every officer.
They capture crimes and acts of heroism.
He's not responding.
Several state patrols across the nation
use body cameras and dashcams together.
What's up?
Georgia is one of 16 state police
agencies contacted by 11 Alive
Investigates that don't currently issue
body cams to their patrol troopers.
Alright, yeah,
I'm on the GSP videos show officers
from small cities and rural counties
wearing body cameras when they
respond to State Patrol shootings
and troopers have been cleared
because of that body camera footage
captured by local police.
Why not institute body cameras?
The Georgia State Patrol
says everything happens in front
of the cruiser, so the dash camera
is going to catch everything.
That's simply not true, and in this case is
a great example of that.
The killing of Julian Lewis off
camera resulted in the largest
settlement in Georgia history,
$4.8 million for the Lewis family.
The trooper was suspended,
but not indicted after the
GBI determined the story.
He wrote in the police report did not
match all of the evidence on scene.
We are never know.
The truth is it happened off camera.
It happened off camera. So Brenda.
What does the Georgia State which all
have to say about your investigation?
We actually don't know even though we
gave them weeks to do an interview.
Officials with the Department of Public
Safety asked for the questions in advance,
then the agency's lawyers clarified
they'd respond only in writing.
We refused here at 11,
live investigates, because,
just like the Georgia State Patrol shootings,
their answers would be off camera
alright Brendan, a great job.
As always.
Thank you so much and you can
read much more about Brendan's
investigation on our website,
elevenalive.com.