Georgia Man Killed in Drug Raid Was Face Down When Shot in Head, Says Family’s Lawyer

David Hooks, the Georgia man killed in a SWAT raid on his East
Dublin home in September, was
shot in the head and back while face down on the ground,
according to his family’s attorney, Mitchell Shook, who cited EMS
and hospital records as evidence.

As reported by
WMEZ-TV:

“One was to the side of the head, the other, was in his back,
the back of his left shoulder, based on the evidence we see, we
believe that David Hooks was face down on the ground when he
received those last two shots,” says Shook.

Shook says they have not received the autopsy yet from the
GBI.

As noted by
Reason‘s Ed Krayewski, the raid was based on a tip
from Rodney Garrett, a local meth addict who had just stolen a car
from Hooks’ property. According to the warrant, Garrett told police
he removed a bag from the stolen vehicle believing it held cash,
but instead discovered it was filled with meth. Apparently fearful
he just robbed a local drug kingpin, he turned himself in because
he “became
scared for his safety.”

The theft of one of their vehicles naturally made the
Hooks household edgy that night, and David kept a shotgun in the
house. Though the warrant did not contain a “no knock” provision,
Hooks’ wife, Teresa, says that the Laurens Country sheriff’s
deputies and their SWAT compatriots simply busted down their back
door and charged in, guns blazing.

In an interview with
WMEZ-TV, Hooks recalls the night her husband was
killed:

“Between 10:30 and 11, I turned the light off upstairs. I
heard a car coming up the driveway really fast, and I looked up the
upstairs window. I saw a black vehicle with no lights. I saw 6 to 8
men, coming around the side of my house, and I panicked. I came
running downstairs, yelling for David to wake up. He was in the
bedroom asleep, had been for about an hour and a half. When I got
downstairs to the bottom of the stairs, he opened the door and he
had a gun in his hand, and he said, ‘Who is it?,’ and I said I
didn’t know. He stepped back into the bedroom like he was going to
grab his pants, but before he could do that, the door was busted
down. He came around me, in the hall, into the den, and I was gonna
come behind him, but before I could step into the den the shots
were fired, and it was over.”

According to Shook, the Hooks’ home was searched for more
than 44 hours with no drugs or contraband found. But as the

Drug War Chronicle reported:

Investigators also claimed they were familiar with the
address from a 2009 investigation in which a suspect claimed he had
supplied ounces of meth to Hooks, who resold it. Nothing apparently
ever came of that investigation, but the five-year-old
uncorroborated tip made it into the search warrant
application.

The toxic combination of a “five year-old uncorroborated tip,” a
vague accusation from a confessed car thief and meth addict, and a
recently robbed man reacting to a violent intrusion on his home
created the conditions that led to the 17 shots fired by law
enforcement that night. 

In a statement that is becoming all too familiar, Shook said he
hopes the Laurens County District Attorney will take the case to a
grand jury and not solely rely on law enforcement’s take of the
deadly raid.