rookie cop fired one day after running suspect down with car
Patmon escaped into the street, now sprinting down the yellow line. Saulters accelerated and veered toward him. Another jolt, and then Patmon was over the hood, bouncing off the windshield.
Somehow he never lost his grip on his ball cap, even as he fell face down into the street.
Saulters leaped out of the car. The second officer had already caught up and was straddling Patmon, who lay writhing on the wet pavement.
"We got him," Saulters said.
He reached back inside his car to kill the sirens. Almost instantly, the audio track on his body cam filled with the sounds of people screaming.
A woman had stepped into the street to stare at Patmon, covered in dirt, with two uniformed officers standing over him. "Oh my God," she aid. "Why'd you hit that man?"
Saulters pointed at her. "Stop!" He bent down to help the second officer cuff Patmon, who wouldn't let go of his ball cap. The hat was drawn taut as the officers tried to pry his arms apart.
It had been less than 60 seconds since the impact, but already a throng had gathered at the Iron Triangle. The accounts of eyewitnesses were relayed through the crowd as angry shouts: "He hit the man! He hit the man! He hit the man!"
On the ground, Patmon half-closed his eyes and finally let the officers cuff him.
"You can't hit the man with a car like that!"
"We're going to need crowd control," Saulters said.
"We need, uh, EMS," he added.
Seconds later, a second squad car pulled up. More uniforms joined Saulters and the second officer. A man in a camouflage T-shirt stepped out of the crowd, pulled a lanyard from his jeans and slung a badge around his neck.
"I got him with my car," Saulters explained. "That's what they're yelling about."
Most of the police started making a perimeter, herding the shouters back to the sidewalk. They left Saulters and Patmon to have a sort of conversation in the street.
"Stand up," Saulters said, almost softly. "We're going to put you in the back of this car while we handle this, all right?"
Patmon didn't move.
"You don't want to lay like that, man. It ain't good on your handcuffs."
"It hurts," Patmon said.
"What hurts?" Saulters asked. "From when you hit the ground?"
"You know!" Patmon said.
"Oh, I know. I know what I did. Why'd you run?"
"I don't know. I just did."
Patmon finally sat up, sitting on the curb with his hands bound behind him. Saulters ignored the jeers from all around him, discussing the damage to his front wheel with other officers.
After a minute or so, a woman walked slowly out of the crowd. She passed through the police line and held out a cigarette to Patmon.
She put it in his mouth and lit it, and the officers let him smoke it for a few moments. Then Saulters took it away.
"We can't smoke in the car," he said. "All right?"
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/athens-georgia-police-officer-saulters-car-suspect-12964113.php
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/athens-georgia-police-officer-saulters-car-suspect-12964113.php
