DUBLIN, Ga. — An attorney for the family of a man who was shot and killed by police in South Georgia is raising questions about the case.
Police say they shot David Hooks during a drug raid in September because he was armed and aggressive.
The attorney says no drugs were found and Hooks was shot in the back while he was face down on the ground.
The victim’s wife, Teresa Hooks, was in the home that night.
“Initially, I thought that I was going to die,” she said. “I thought I was going to be shot. I thought a gang had broke in, and up until I heard the radios — the dispatch radios — I had no idea.”
It’s a night Teresa Hooks remembers all too well.
“Between 10:30 and 11, I turned the light off upstairs,” she said. “I heard a car coming up the driveway really fast, and I looked up the upstairs window. I saw a black vehicle with no lights. I saw six to eight men coming around the side of my house, and I panicked. I came running downstairs, yelling for David to wake up. He was in the bedroom asleep, had been for about an hour and a half. When I got downstairs to the bottom of the stairs, he opened the door and he had a gun in his hand, and he said, ‘Who is it?,’ and I said I didn’t know. He stepped back into the bedroom like he was going to grab his pants, but before he could do that, the door was busted down. He came around me, in the hall, into the den, and I was gonna come behind him, but before I could step into the den the shots were fired, and it was over.”
Hooks says she sat outside in handcuffs for two hours after her husband was shot to death. She says during that time she had to watch her husband on a stretcher without a word from officers about what was going on.
Mitchell Shook, who is representing Hooks’ family, says the raid was illegal and he asked the FBI to investigate. Shook says the officers fired 17 shots inside the home and struck Hooks. He says Hooks had four wounds, two of which, he says, are especially troubling.
“One was to the side of the head, the other, was in his back, the back of his left shoulder,” Shook said. “Based on the evidence we see, we believe that David Hooks was face down on the ground when he received those last two shots.”
Hooks says she appreciates all of the support from the community.
“Our community has supported us for the most part, and we really appreciate that,” she said. “I think there’s been a misconception of us being anti-law enforcement. That’s not true, we realize there has to be law enforcement and we respect law enforcement but this was wrong.”
“We hope that the district attorney will take all of this into consideration and take this case before the grand jury and do it in a matter where the grand jury hears everything, not just the officer side of the story,” Shook said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case.
A GBI spokeswoman says they are still waiting for lab results before completing their investigation.
Then the case will be turned over District Attorney Craig Fraser for possible prosecution.