SOUTH FULTON, Ga. — A DeKalb County elementary school teacher wants to get his job back after charges against him for shooting a man were dropped.
Roger Matthis says he was forced to shoot his former roommate in self-defense after the man kicked in the door of his South Fulton home in February 2020.
Matthis told Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes that he had been trying to evict Terrill Terry for weeks before the shooting.
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Terry was had been cited for disorderly conduct and violence the same month of the shooting. A judge ordered Terry to return the house keys to Matthis and granted Matthis a protective order.
A few days after that hearing, Terry kicked in the teacher’s front door. Matthis shot him and was subsequently arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
“[Terry] really just played the police officers who didn’t run his name and didn’t do their due diligence to find out who he was,” Matthis said.
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Matthis lost his teaching job and the state revoked his teaching license.
After nearly two years of fighting for his freedom, Matthis has finally gotten the charges against him dropped, and he’s looking ahead to the future.
“They should’ve done an investigation. I had all the proof that he wasn’t supposed to be there but they said they wanted it to play out in court. I’m glad it didn’t get that far and that justice prevailed. It just took a long time,” he told Fernandes.
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Matthis is hoping that since the charges have been dropped, that he will be able to get his teaching job back.
“I’m looking forward to getting back into the classroom,” he said.
Matthis has a hearing in January to try and get his teaching license restored. He told Fernandes that he has spoken to a representative with the Georgia Professional Standards Commission who says that because he has been cleared, he should be getting his job back.
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