And Again

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; death. Video may autoplay at link.]

Nicholas Thomas, a 23-year-old black man, was shot and killed by police who are claiming self-defense:

Police said he violated a felony conviction on a crime they would not discuss with 11Alive News. But police said that when they showed up at the Goodyear Service Center on Cumberland Parkway [in Smyrna, Georgia], where he worked, Thomas jumped into a customer's Maserati and started to drive off and would not surrender.

"The cop yelled, and he said, 'get out the car, get out the car now,' and he just drove off. Then, he put it in reverse, there was nothing the cop could do from there," said witness Ryan Rose. So, I guess he— the cop shot at the car."

"The suspect drove his car toward officers, putting officers in fear for their lives, at which time the officers fired into the vehicle, shooting the suspect," said Smyrna Police Sgt. Ed Cason.

Cason said there were at least three Smyrna officers there trying to arrest Thomas, plus at least three Cobb County Police officers. Cason did not say how many officers shot at the car, but Cobb Police say none of their officers fired any rounds. Cason also would not say if they found a gun with Thomas.

..."They could have shot the tires out; could have shot the radiator. Where's he gonna go?" asked Huey Thomas, Nicholas' father. "I mean, he's gonna get out and run. I just think it was totally unnecessary."

Smyrna Police are continuing their investigation of the incident.

I'll bet they are.

Here, it's not clear if Thomas was reversing his car "at" officers, or driving it forward toward them. In other stories, it sounds more like he was driving it directly toward them. But, either way, the bullet holes are in the side of the car.

And one might think, well, maybe it was just other officers protecting the officers at whom he was driving, except the police version (at this point) is that it was the officers who "feared for their lives" because Thomas was driving at them who "fired into the vehicle."

We must pay attention to details like this, because the asserted facts in the police account immediately after any shooting is often where police cover-ups begin.

Especially when another witness significanly contradicts that account, in a way that makes more sense given the placement of the bullet holes:

"They were standing behind the car, opening fire. He wasn't driving towards them," Goodyear customer Brittany Eustache said.

Eustache told Channel 2's Rachel Stockman what happened. She said she watched from inside the store, just feet away.

"The car was not moving when they began to shoot at him. The car had been stopped. He hit a curb. He couldn't go any further," she said.

"So at no point was he making any aggressive moves?" Stockman asked her.

"None, none at all. They immediately opened fire on them," Eustache said.

Let us further note that, in early reports, the police were referencing Thomas' "felony conviction" without further detail, but, apparently, this entire event started because they were serving him an arrest warrant for a probation violation on a traffic violation.

Which: This and this.

How municipal violations are abused by police to exploit communities, especially poor communities, is generally something that we all need to understand. But it could be fairly central to this case, to detail how Nicholas Thomas went from a guy who had a traffic violation, which he was trying to sort out with an attorney, to a guy who is dead and accused of trying to run over police.