ATLANTA — A 62-year-old metro Atlanta father is dead after his children say a minor traffic accident led to a tasing by Atlanta police.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is now investigating the officer’s use of force.
Atlanta police were called to the intersection of Cunningham Place and Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard around 11:20 p.m. to investigate a traffic accident.
Atlanta police determined that the at-fault driver was 62-year-old Johnny Hollman and attempted to issue a traffic ticket.
According to police, Hollman became “agitated and uncooperative.”
“The officer attempted to take the driver into custody, but he resisted and a struggle ensued,” police said. “After several minutes of struggling with the male, the officer utilized his taser and, with the help of a witness, placed the driver into handcuffs.”
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After the officer took Hollman into custody, police realized that he was unresponsive. Police called and ambulance, and Hollman was taken to the hospital, where he died.
Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Ashli Lincoln spoke to Hollman’s children Friday, who said they disagree with the APD’s account and that they were listening in the whole time.
Arnitra Hollman, his daughter, said her father called she and her brother shortly after the accident so they could listen to how the officer was speaking to him. The stayed on the phone with him for 17 minutes as they raced to the scene.
“I heard my daddy asking them, begging them,” Hollman said. “He said, ‘This black car just hit me.’ I never hung up.”
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Arnitra Hollman said her brother started recording police when they got to the scene of the wreck.
“My daddy was jus laying out there in the street with no life in him,” she said.
“I can’t believe this man! Y’all got my daddy on this ground!” someone says in the recording.
“Seventeen minutes,” Hollman said. “I was on the phone with him for 17 minutes from my house to where he was.”
Hollman said it was the police officer who was aggressive, not her father.
“The officer was like, ‘What I say? What I say?’ He was real aggressive,” Hollman said. “And my daddy said, ‘You’re going to do an old man like me like this?’”
Hollman said the family is hoping the GBI will shed some light on what led to his death.
“All they had to do was listen,” Hollman said. “Why no one have respect for human life?”
The Fulton County Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy. The GBI is conducting an independent investigation, which is active and ongoing.
Atlanta Police has opened an internal investigation and placed the officer on administrative leave.
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the GBI regional investigative office in Conyers at (706) 388-5019. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.
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