ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News is learning new details about the arrest of a state lawmaker after she knocked on the door of the governor’s ceremonial office as he signed a new controversial voter bill into law.
Channel 2′s Michael Seiden obtained the incident report about the night that state Rep. Park Cannon was arrested following a chaotic scene at the state Capitol.
In the report, one trooper said the protesters were so loud that a staff member called the Georgia State Patrol in a panic, telling him to lock down the governor’s office and move the governor and first lady to safety.
Those protestors are now calling those claims false and are calling on prosecutors to drop the charges.
“It’s all lies. No one got near the door,” protester Tamara Stevens said.
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The official incident report includes new photos that GSP investigators said show Cannon stomping on a trooper’s foot, leaving him with a crack in his shoe and a bruised right foot.
The state trooper also claims in the report that he felt threatened by the group of protestors supporting Cannon, writing in part: “I felt if I did not take action, the other protestors would have been emboldened to commit similar acts. The events of January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol were in the back of my mind.”
“There was no banging. There was no shaking or rattling of the door. The only person who touched that door was Rep. Cannon, and she knocked,” Stevens said.
Channel 2 Action News has requested a copy of the surveillance video to see the incident in its entirety, but authorities have declined this request citing the ongoing investigation.
Seiden contacted several GOP leaders, including Gov. Brian Kemp, for comment about the arrest and the latest information about the incident, but they declined to comment on the specifics.
Kemp made comments last week about the incident.
“It’s unfortunate that a sitting state representative would actually stomp and kick a Georgia State Patrol officer,” Kemp said.
Seiden also spoke with Channel 2 political analyst Bill Crane about the optics of the controversial bill being signed into law, with a Black lawmaker being carried away in handcuffs while Kemp and his several all-white colleagues celebrated the new law behind closed doors.
“I was cringing,” Crane said. “All of this could’ve been handled so much differently. They could’ve done a public bill signing, and they could’ve waited until after the legislature session.”
Attorney Gerald Griggs, who is also the vice president of the NAACP Atlanta chapter, sent Seiden a statement, saying:
“Currently we are still investigating this matter however it appears that the independent videos, witness statements, and evidence are inconsistent with the statements made in the police report. Our investigation is on-going.”
Cox Media Group
