In the fall of 2023, a police chase in the suburbs of Atlanta turned fatal, ending the life of 20-year-old Emmanuel Millard. Millard, a Black male from Marietta, was involved in a traffic stop initiated by Woodstock Police on the night of October 12, 2023. Instead of stopping, he led officers on a pursuit that crossed into Cobb County. The chase concluded when officers executed a PIT maneuver, causing Millard's vehicle to crash.
As officers surrounded the disabled car, the situation escalated dramatically. In the moments that followed, one of the officers, Grant Matthew Shaw, discharged his weapon, striking Millard in the head. Millard was unarmed at the time of the shooting and, according to his family's attorney who viewed body camera footage, was complying with police commands. He was transported to a hospital in Roswell in serious condition and succumbed to his injuries two days later, on October 14, 2023.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to lead an independent inquiry into the officer-involved shooting. In the wake of the incident, Officer Shaw resigned from the Woodstock Police Department. Months later, in April 2024, a Cobb County grand jury indicted Shaw on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. The grand jury, however, chose not to indict him on more severe charges of felony murder and assault.
The legal proceedings concluded in December 2024, when Grant Shaw entered a guilty plea to the involuntary manslaughter charge. Rather than face a jury, he opted to have a judge determine his sentence. Prosecutors had recommended a sentence that included two years of confinement, but the judge ultimately sentenced Shaw to 10 years of probation, which included two years of house arrest and 500 hours of community service. The sentence was met with shock and dismay by Millard's family, who believed that race played a role in what they perceived as a lenient outcome. The family's attorneys announced they had reached a civil settlement in the case.
