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New York Daily News editorial blasts failure to indict Avondale Estates officer

Avondale Estates

New York Daily News editorial blasts failure to indict Avondale Estates officer

An Avondale Estates Police Car. Source: City of Avondale Estates, GA
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An Avondale Estates Police Car. Source: City of Avondale Estates, GA

An Avondale Estates Police Car. Source: City of Avondale Estates, GA

An editorial in the New York Daily News has taken the DeKalb County District Attorney to task over its failure to indict an Avondale Estates Police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black man.

Sgt. Lynn Thomas fatally shot Jayvis Benjamin, 20, in January of 2013. Police allege that he stole a car then attacked an officer after crashing into someone’s yard. A civil grand jury reviewed the evidence in the case and recommended turning the case over a criminal grand jury. In May the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office said it would ask a grand jury to indict Thomas. But so far, nothing has happened.

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Thomas still works for the Avondale Estates Police Department.

Benjamin’s supporters recently planned a “peaceful demonstration” in front of the District Attorney’s Office. The District Attorney told Decaturish, ““We don’t have a comment at this time as this matter is still pending in our office.”

The New York Daily news called the length of the investigation into the shooting death “completely and utterly ridiculous.”

“No grieving parent should have to fight so hard for so long for so little,” the editorial concludes.

To read the full editorial, click here.

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