In the early morning hours of April 17, 1964, a sense of unease settled over a quiet, wooded area off Arc Road in Gwinnett County, Georgia. It was here that a grim discovery would soon unravel a story of betrayal and brutal violence that would leave a lasting scar on the community. The chain of events began when Gwinnett County Police Officer Jerry Reed Everett, 28, along with his partners, Officer Marvin Gravitt and Officer Ralph Davis, responded to a call about suspicious activity.
The male officers were investigating a report of individuals stripping a stolen car. What they encountered in that secluded spot was far more sinister than a simple auto theft.
The following day, after the officers failed to check in, a search was launched. Their patrol car was found abandoned, and a short distance away, in the dense woods, the bodies of all three officers were discovered. The scene was one of calculated brutality; the men had been handcuffed together and shot a total of fourteen times. The cold-blooded nature of the killings sent shockwaves through the local community and law enforcement agencies, sparking an intensive investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Weeks later, the investigation led to the arrest of three suspects. In a shocking twist, one of the men taken into custody was a former Gwinnett County deputy sheriff, a man who had once worn a badge and sworn to uphold the law he so violently disregarded. This inside knowledge of police procedures likely played a role in the initial success of their crime. As the legal process unfolded, one of the suspects was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony against his two accomplices.
The subsequent trial brought the harrowing details of the officers' final moments to light. The two remaining suspects, including the ex-deputy, were found guilty and sentenced to death for the execution-style murders. However, their sentences were later commuted to life in prison. In a further turn of events that caused anguish to the victims' families and fellow officers, one of the convicted men was paroled in 1989. The former deputy sheriff, the betrayer of his oath, remained behind bars and ultimately died in prison in May of 2016, closing a chapter on one of the darkest days in the history of Gwinnett County law enforcement.
