After 19-year-old Cooper Schoenke was killed Monday night during a police chase in Little Five Points, legislators and community advocates are imploring Gov. Brian Kemp to institute reforms to the Georgia State Patrol’s (GSP) pursuit policies.
GSP troopers attempted to stop a speeding Chevrolet Equinoz on I-20 on April 14 when the driver, 23-year-old Faduma Mohamed, refused to stop and exited the interstate onto Moreland Avenue. Mohamed ran a red light at the intersection of Moreland and McLendon Avenue, striking a Honda Accord driven by Schoenke, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Cooper was a gentle soul with a big heart that matched his height,” Schoenke’s family said in a statement read by family friend Kate Weaver at an April 16 press conference in Little Five Points. “He had a dry sense of humor and was a master of comedic timing… He cared deeply about equality, his community, and hie neighbors. Any mother losing a child is an unimaginable tragedy, made worse only by the fact that this fatal accident could have been prevented.”
Devin Barrington-Ward, the Director of Communications at the National Police Accountability Project; Atlanta City Council member Liliana Bakhtiari; Georgia State Representatives Sandra Scott and Eric Bell II; Derrick Johnson, the President of the NAACP; and doctors representing Stop Criminalization of Our Patients (SCOOP) were among those gathered at the intersection of Moreland and Euclid Avenue on Wednesday to advocate for reforms to GSP pursuit policies.
“Let me be clear: the driver absolutely bears responsibility,” Barrington-Ward said. “Should she have run from the police? No. But what we also must recognize is that there are well documented cases of racism, abuses of power, civil rights violations, and deadly use of force, oftentimes unique to people in undocumented communities, law enforcement must acknowledge and own that truth. Of the three people that were involved in this chase, only one of them was sworn to an oath to protect and serve. Why are we holding state troopers to a lower standard than the people they are chasing?”
The suggested policy changes include restricting high-speed pursuits to cases involving violent felonies, requiring supervisory approval before initiating or continuing a pursuit, and prohibiting high-speed pursuits and PIT maneuvers in densely populated areas, during peak traffic, within major pedestrian corridors, and in residential neighborhoods.
Garrison Douglas, a spokesperson for Gov. Kemp, released the following statement regarding the incident:
“It is heartbreaking to see such a young life taken at the hands of a criminal seeking to evade justice. Let’s be clear: the leaders of the rejected Defund the Police movement have another bad idea and by misidentifying the Department of Public Safety Commissioner, have proven once again that they lack basic understanding of the facts. Those who break the law and act recklessly are to blame for the tragic and needless loss of these lives, and it’s shameful that anyone would seek to diminish the actions of those who caused these deaths and shift blame onto those who put their lives on the line every day to safeguard our communities. It is thanks to the brave and dedicated work of law enforcement and the full rejection of these short-sighted arguments that we have seen a historic drop in crime in our Capital city.”
The group called on Gov. Kemp and Department of Public Safety Commissioner Chris Wright to use their executive authority to by-pass the legislative process and implement these reforms – and to acknowledge the life lost.
“Governor Kemp released a statement via his spokesperson after this incident, and he did not mention Cooper’s name, not once,” Barrington-Ward said. “He only blamed the suspect and implied that those of us who are calling for restraint or reform are somehow opposed to law enforcement.”
“Governor Kemp, it’s time for you to recognize that police accountability is an all-encompassing issue,” Johnson added. “It’s something that you, regardless of your political affiliation, can get behind, because it protects the safety of the officer, it protects the safety of the alleged criminal, and more importantly, it protects the safety of the public.”
According to recent reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GSP has engaged in over 6,700 pursuits over the past five years—leading to more than 1,900 injuries and 63 deaths, many of whom were uninvolved bystanders or passengers.
Mohamed faces multiple charges, including felony murder, vehicular homicide, reckless driving, and drug possession.
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