Former South Fulton officer acquitted on all charges in relation to 2018 on-duty crash
Former Officer Deonte Walker faced charges including three counts of homicide by vehicle, three counts of involuntary manslaughter and a single count of serious injury by vehicle. A Fulton County jury delivered a not-guilty verdict on all seven charges.
A directed verdict of acquittal was reached on another count and a ninth charge of violation of oath by public officer was dismissed by Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr.
The crash took the lives of three people in November 2018, as Walker was chasing a stolen Mercedes-Benz and crashed into a van carrying six people.
Both the patrol car and the van went up in flames. Three people inside the van were killed, while Walker was able to escape with the help of another officer in a separate car.
The driver of the van said he didn't see or hear the lights and sirens of the patrol car at the time of the accident and another survivor of the crash said he heard the sirens but didn't see the lights. Walker maintained he had both sirens and lights on during the pursuit, and made other arguments in court as to his character as a "cautious or prudent person and... a law-abiding person."
Walker's defense attorney Saraliene Smith Durrett, in a statement, addressed the issue of the lights and sirens and also noted evidence at trial that the driver of the van had a red light at the time of the accident, and that Walker had a green light, as well as the van driver's BAC above .00 (though seemingly under the legal limit of .08):
On behalf of my client, I want to thank the jury for their hard work in this case. When this case was originally investigated in 2018, the Georgia State Patrol declined to bring charges against Officer Walker. Four years later, the DA's office sought an indictment, and Fani Willis went on the news to publicize her allegations against Officer Walker. Although her comments had the potential to taint the jury pool and turn the public against Officer Walker, he waited years to respond, as is appropriate in our legal system. Finally, at trial, the jury learned that the driver of the van that pulled in front of Officer Walker was not a licensed driver and that he had been drinking immediately before the accident. Our expert determined that his blood alcohol content was between a .06 and a.07 at the time of the accident. Our traffic light expert also explained that Officer Walker had the green light at the time of the accident, and the van had a red light. The evidence also showed that the van driver and at least two passengers inside the van heard Officer Walker's sirens before the crash. When told to wait for the officer to pass, the driver declined to do so. The jury heard this and other evidence and made their determination that Mr. Walker was not guilty, despite the DA's previous public allegations.
The long-winding case was indicted in 2022 before a trial finally began on August 5.