Police tapes detail deadly shootout
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Three officers were wounded in the Nov. 21 incident at the Atlanta home of Kathryn Johnston, where the officers were serving a search warrant when Johnston was killed by officers.
About 40 minutes of recordings of police radio conversations around the time of the shootout were released by the department Friday, in response to an open records request filed by AP.
“Give me a 63,” an officer is heard saying at the start of the tape, a reference to the police code for officer needs help. “Shots fired inside.”
Transmissions made by numerous officers are recorded on the tape, along with responses from dispatchers. There is a clear sense of urgency in their voices, and moments of brief shouting can be heard as officers work to coordinate their efforts.
About eight minutes after the initial call for help, a dispatcher repeatedly asks about the condition of the wounded officers. In response, another officer lists their injuries.
“We’ve got one in the arm, one in the leg, one in the shoulder,” the unidentified officer said.
There are many references to the wounded officers, but little talk of Johnston. Officers refer to her as a “perp,” or perpetrator. There were no calls for medical assistance for Johnston, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Elderly female on the location … with a handgun,” an officer reported.
The most critical radio traffic, between the narcotics officers who served the warrant, was not taped because the channel used by the narcotics unit is considered confidential and not among the dozens of radio channels recorded digitally by the Atlanta Police Department, said Officer Joe Cobb, an agency spokesman.
Cobb said that channel and some others used by Atlanta officers are not recorded “because of space limitations” in the department’s recording system. The recordings released to AP were from two other channels that are routinely recorded by the department.
Nevertheless, Cobb said FBI agents leading the investigation into Johnston’s shooting will rely on “detailed accounts of what procedures were taken during the planning and execution of the search warrant.”
Johnston’s exact age is unclear. Relatives insist the woman was 92 years old when she died. But a report by the medical examiner lists her age as 88.
The officers involved in the shooting remain on paid leave.