Though there is some debate about whether or not Kathryn Johnston was 88 or 92 years old. There is one thing that can’t be debated — she died needlessly at the hands of police.

Ms. Johnston was killed in an encounter with police on Novemember 21st. On that day, police officers, in plain clothes and executing a “no-knock” warrant, burst into Johnston’s home. Johnston, at home alone, allegedly fired at the intruders, wounding three police officers. The police then gunned her down.

The story gets even more strange…

According to the police, Johnston was not the target of the warrant. Instead, the officers said they were looking for a large black man named “Sam” who supposedly sold drugs out of that address. According to the affadavit, this raid should have yielded computers, money, cocaine and other equipment. None of this was found. Instead, the best they could come up with was a small bag of marijauana.

Also, the police do not appear to have done any surveillance on the house prior to the raid. Instead, all this was done based on suspicion from a supposed buy an officer made the day prior to the raid.

Finally, the informant that the police say gave them the name of the suspected dealer has come forward to say that no “Sam” ever existed and this was lie that the police put him up to telling this story to cover their tracks. Relatives say that no one besides Johnston lived in that home.

Now, it has come out that the FBI will be probing this killing.

While I don’t have a great deal of faith in them, either, I trust them to do an investigation over the police department whose officers were involved in the shooting.

Once again, we find a black person dying at the hands of police under very suspicious circumstances. We need to really stay on top of this because this has implications far beyond Atlanta.

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