Family of naked Georgia man shot dead by cops sues
ATLANTA - The family of an unarmed naked man fatally shot by an Atlanta-area police officer has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit.
The lawsuit against the DeKalb County Police Department, Officer Robert Olsen, the county and its board of commissioners was filed Wednesday.
A spokesman for the police department did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. County attorney O.V. Brantley says she doesn't comment on pending litigation.
Olsen shot Anthony Hill on March 9 while responding to a call of a man behaving erratically outside a suburban Atlanta apartment complex.
Hill's mother, Carolyn Giummo, says officers must held accountable, and she hopes the lawsuit will prompt change in police training.
DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James is considering whether to present the case to a grand jury for indictment.
Hill's girlfriend has said he was an Air Force veteran who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Bridget Anderson said she had been planning to go to Anthony Hill's place Monday evening to cook together and celebrate their three-year anniversary. Instead, she got a call that he had been shot dead by police.
A police officer responding to reports of a suspicious person knocking on doors and crawling on the ground naked at an apartment complex just outside Atlanta fatally shot the 27-year-old Hill. Officer Robert Olsen shot Hill twice when the man began running toward him and didn't stop when ordered, DeKalb County Chief of Police Cedric Alexander told reporters.
Anderson told The Associated Press that Hill had served more than four years in the U.S. Air Force when he was medically discharged a few years ago. He was being treated by a VA doctor for bipolar disorder but stopped taking his medication a week or two before the shooting because he didn't like the side effects, including stiffening in his jaw, she said.
But Anderson, 22, said she didn't notice any changes in her boyfriend after he stopped taking the medication and she'd never known him to behave strangely.
"This is totally out of the blue," she said, referring to the strange behavior police and others described before Hill was shot.
No weapon was found on Hill, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting. The police chief acknowledged the national debate surrounding police shootings and said he wanted to make sure the investigation was transparent, open and fair.