Georgia Cop Tells Terrified Woman, “We Only Kill Black People”

A veteran Georgia cop was caught on a dashcam video telling a terrified woman not worry. He told the woman that she shouldn’t fear moving her hands on his demand because “we only kill black people, right?”

The video is audibly clear, and there is no mistaking what the police officer is saying. Even without subtitles, it’s not difficult to decipher his words.

Cobb County police Lt. Gregg Abbott said the remarks on dashcam video obtained by WSB-TV. Although the odd incident occurred sometime last year, the video was only recently obtained by the network. Its release has prompted Cobb County police to open an investigation.

Abbott pulled the silver sedan over for a DUI stop. He can be heard telling a woman in the passenger seat to use the cell phone in her lap. The woman tells the 28-year police veteran she’s afraid to move her hands. “I’ve just seen way too many videos of cops,” the woman says before Abbott cuts her off. “But you’re not black,” he says. “Remember, we only shoot black people.”

“All the videos you’ve seen, have you seen black people getting killed?” he asks the frightened woman, to which she says, “Right.”

The cop has so far been eager to tell his side of the story, which he claims isn’t racial. He says he only wanted the woman to comply with his orders. Suri Chadha Jimenez, the woman’s lawyer in the DUI case, said Abbott was likely being “sarcastic” because the woman “gave him some lip.” But that doesn’t make it right, according to Jimenez. “It makes you cringe when you hear it,” Jimenez said. “It’s unacceptable.”

Abbott’s attorney intervened and only released a statement, however, instead of allowing the police officer to detail his side of the story, according to the news report by WSB-TV. “He was attempting to de-escalate a situation involving an uncooperative passenger,” lawyer Lance LoRusso said in a statement. “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.”

Abbott was put on administrative leave until the investigation is over. “No matter what the context it was said, it shouldn’t have been said,” Cobb County Police Chief Mike Register told WSB-TV. Up until this point, Abbott was a quality officer, Register told the channel. He also wanted viewers to know that this incident happened before he became police chief. “We’re not making excuses,” he said. “We’re meeting this head-on and we’re going to deal with it.”

“We are going to keep going forward to make sure we, as a police department, serving the community in a most professional way — all segments of the community,” Register said.