Protesters accuse white officers of killing innocent black teenager

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Posted 7:44AM on Tuesday, July 23, 2002

ATLANTA - Hundreds of protesters lined the sidewalks near police headquarters Monday to protest the shooting of a black teenager accused of trying to run over an officer. Corey Ward, 18, was shot and killed by a plainclothes policeman early July 14 in Atlanta's Buckhead nightclub district. Officer R.S. Bunn shot Ward in the head as Ward charged his mother's Chevy Tahoe at him, Atlanta police said. The officer was pinned between the Tahoe and a police car. Ward's family has said the teen was doing nothing wrong and had no way of knowing Bunn was a police officer because he wasn't wearing a uniform. Family members and friends said Ward was afraid of a white man brandishing a gun. About 250 protesters marched outside City Hall East Monday during afternoon rush hour, winning honks of support from commuters. Many marchers wore T-shirts with Ward's senior portrait and the words, "Always Smiling." A woman who described herself as a family friend, Rita Owens, said the killing was racial profiling. "This is happening all over the country. It could happen to your 18-year-old son," she said. The man who organized the march, Atlanta activist Markel Hutchins, spoke to the crowd using a bullhorn and led a singing of "We Shall Overcome." "If we allow them to kill Corey unchecked, they will kill countless others," Hutchins said. "Because we have a black police chief, we think we're immune to racial profiling." Protesters called for a federal investigation and for the officer and his partner to be placed on leave without pay. The officer was placed on administrative leave for three days after the shooting and was then reactivated. Police said Ward was helping another man escape after breaking into a vehicle and shattering its window. Four men and a juvenile, all black, were arrested and charged with entering an auto, criminal damage to property and obstruction to police. Protesters said the six never broke into the broken-down car and police never found a weapon or fingerprints. "The matter is being investigated by both homicide and the office of professional standards," said Sgt. John Quigley, a spokesman for the police department. He would not give additional comment while the shooting is under investigation. Georgia law allows the use of deadly force in self defense when it's necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury. "This is about a man who died for no reason," said Damon Woodruff, who didn't know Ward but joined the protest to oppose racial profiling. "Why couldn't they have just shot him in the leg?" The protesters said the two plainclothes officers, whose job it is to stop thefts and other property crimes, didn't adequately identify themselves. Ward was justified in running away from unidentified men carrying guns, they said. But according to a police news release, the officers told the men they were law enforcement and Ward still tried to run them down.