Grand jury indicts police officer who shot unarmed naked man

DeKalb County Officer Robert Olsen shot and killed Air Force veteran Anthony Hill in March of that year, who was reportedly naked and unarmed at the time of the shooting.

Olsen shot Anthony Hill on March 9 while responding to a call of a man behaving erratically outside a suburban Atlanta apartment complex.

DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James announced that DeKalb County Police Officer Robert Olsen will be indicted on two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, two counts of violation of oath of office by a public officer, and one count of making a false statement. “When this case is presented in a fair manner to a jury in an open courtroom, Officer Olsen will be fully exonerated”.

Prosecutors presented evidence for eight hours Thursday with testimony from witnesses, James said.

Olsen’s attorney is criminal defense lawyer Don Samuel, who has represented Ray Lewis and Ben Roethlisberger of the National Football League, as well as rapper T.I.

“The caller reported a male acting deranged, knocking on doors, crawling around on the ground naked”, DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric Alexander said.

James said Olsen testified during the civil grand jury’s process, but declined to say what Olsen said.

The grand jury ruled to indict Olsen despite the challenge posed by Georgia’s legal protections for law enforcement officers, which are among the strongest protections enjoyed by officers in the whole country.

According to WSB-TV, Olsen will be the first police officer to stand trial for a shooting death in Georgia in over half a decade.

Hill’s family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Atlanta against Olsen and the county. And protesters began gathering Monday outside the DeKalb courthouse – staging a round-the-clock vigil in bitter cold – to remind the grand jury they’ll be watching.

Hill’s family says that at the time of his death he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after being deployed to Afghanistan, as well as bipolar disorder, which led to a medical discharge from the military. “It’s up to the Grand Jury, but he’s taken that step towards that”. Police accounts stated that Hill charged at them, which eyewitnesses of the shooting said was untrue.