The Atlanta City Council in Georgia unanimously voted on Monday to settle with a former Atlanta police officer who was acquitted in a deadly 2019 shooting.
The city council has agreed to settle with Oliver Simmonds for $1.4 million, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
In 2022, Simmonds was charged with felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and two counts of violation of an oath of public office in the July 15, 2019, fatal shooting at a gas station in the Castleberry Hill neighborhood.
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A jury determined Simmonds was not guilty after four hours of deliberations following his trial in September 2023.
Simmonds, assigned to then-Democrat Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s Executive Protection Unit, was off-duty and wearing plain clothes at the time of the shooting.
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He was pumping gas at a Shell station near the intersection of McDaniel and Whitehall streets when he came into contact with 18-year-old D’Ettrick Griffin.
According to police, Griffin hopped into the driver’s seat of Simmonds’ unmarked police SUV and attempted to drive away. Simmonds then fired his gun at Griffin, striking the teenager, who drove off in the vehicle before crashing shortly after.
Griffin died from the injuries he suffered in the incident.
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