A veteran police lieutenant in Georgia has been moved to administrative duty after being heard on video during a traffic stop telling a woman she wouldn’t be shot because “we only shoot black people.”
News outlets report dash-cam video from July 2016 shows a white female driver pulled over for a DUI stop telling Cobb County police Lt. Greg Abbott she was scared to move her hands in order to get her cellphone.
“Remember, we only kill black people,” Cobb County police Lt. Gregg Abbott said on dashcam video obtained by WSB-TV. “We only kill black people, right?”
The incident occurred sometime last year, but was only recently obtained by the network — prompting Cobb County police to open an investigation.
Abbott’s attorney Lance LoRusso gave Channel 2 Action News in Atlanta the following statement:
“Lt. Greg Abbott is a highly respected 28-year veteran of the Cobb County Police Department. He is cooperating with the department’s internal investigation and will continue to do so. His comments must be observed in their totality to understand their context. He was attempting to de-escalate a situation involving an uncooperative passenger. In context, his comments were clearly aimed at attempting to gain compliance by using the passenger’s own statements and reasoning to avoid making an arrest.”
