WOODBINE, Ga. – A Georgia native family searches for answers in a Camden County shootout involving a proxy.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Latoya Denise James and Varshawn Lamont Brown were shot dead in a “shootout” on Tuesday morning.
James died on the scene, Brown is recovering.
Action News Jax Courtney Cole spoke to his family in Woodbine. The family says Brown had a surveillance camera in his home on US Highway 17. They believe the video footage from the house could be vital in this case. Now they’re just trying to figure out how to get that footage to watch.
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“Before we make hasty decisions and point fingers at the GBI or the sheriff’s office, we want to make sure the facts are the facts,” said Pastor Mack Devon Knight.
Knight, a family member and pastor, said the family still had questions about what the Georgia Bureau of Investigation referred to as “exchanges of fire” in the house at US-17.
“I think my cousin Shawn would certainly have armed and protected himself. I certainly don’t think Latoya even had a gun near her or in her hand, ”Knight said to Cole.
The GBI said the Camden County sheriff’s office knocked and announced before they entered the house.
Cole reached out to the GBI today to find out who started the shooting, whether Brown or James were armed, and when body camera footage would be available.
In an email statement from GBI, the Director of the Public Affairs Bureau told me, “The investigation is ongoing and ongoing. We currently have no new investigation details for publication. If that changes we’ll let you know. “
Cole also filed a drug-related search warrant with the Camden County Clerk. We are waiting for an answer to the request.
The Camden County Sheriff’s Office told Action News Jax Courtney Cole that MPs involved in the shooting have paid administrative leave pending the GBI investigation.
The GBI will conduct an independent investigation. Once this is done, the GBI will hand it over to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit prosecutor’s office for review.
The family is frustrated that they haven’t heard of the GBI or seen James’ body. We felt it was important to go to Dale Carson, our law and security expert at Action News Jax, so he can walk us through an investigation like this one step at a time.
Carson has many years of experience as a special agent with the FBI.
The first thing Carson explained was the time the search warrant was carried out, which was 4:51 a.m.
“What you are doing is have your team plan to go to this residence at an early morning time when the residents who are there are expected to be asleep,” Caron said.
GBI said after MPs knocked on the door and announced themselves, the sheriff’s office entered the house. Then there was what the office called a “shootout” between MPs and Brown and James.
“And the expectation is that you knock on the door, come to the door and open the door. The police will give you a copy of the search warrant, not the affidavit, but the search warrant listing the location, items to be confiscated and such. And they tend to. They give that to the individual in the house. That’s how it’s supposed to work, ”said Carson.
Carson said that when the GBI is called upon to get involved, as in this case, it must take the time to recreate what has happened.
“You do that individually. And then they go back and look at the scene to see where certain people were while the warrant was being carried out. And they will determine what happened then. Why did someone fire a gun? Why is that happend? Has anyone shot law enforcement agencies? Yes or no. And did they act sensibly under the circumstances? Was there adequate lighting in the house at that time? All of these things are considered by the GBI investigators as they are trying to determine whether or not one of the investigators made a mistake, ”Carson explained.
Captain Larry Bruce, spokesman for the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, told Action News that Jax Courtney Cole Sheriff Proctor and the former Kingsland and St. Mary Police Department chiefs had received a grant to cover all Camden law enforcement agencies Cameras to make available district.
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Upon receiving the grants, Bruce said the camera purchases began around 2016 to equip MPs and officials with body-worn cameras.
When it comes to who wears the bod cameras, Bruce explained that most of the body cameras are worn by The Patrol Division. But they also have special operations. Bruce told Cole that most investigators don’t wear a body camera because their daily duties don’t require it.
He told Action News Jax that the sheriff’s office has only been involved in three shootings involving officials since August 2012.