Jake Shore, The Current
A Chatham County grand jury indicted a former Savannah police officer for murdering Saudi Arai Lee in a 2022 encounter that police body camera footage shows the white officer shooting the 31-year-old Black man multiple times in the back.
Ernest Ferguson was indicted Wednesday on three counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, one count of false imprisonment and two counts of making a false statement, according to the court document.
Ferguson now lives in Texas, where he works as a car salesman. It is unclear who represented him during the grand jury proceedings, which are closed to the public. Under Georgia law, which allows police officers immunity for most actions taken during the course of their jobs, law enforcement personnel are also allowed to testify to a grand jury in their own defense.
At a Wednesday press conference, Democratic District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones said a warrant will be issued for Ferguson’s arrest since the indictment has been filed. The former officer does have an attorney.
“My hope is that he and his attorney will cooperate with our team and with law enforcement so that he can be turned in and answer for these charges,” she said.
Lee’s killing was one of five officer-involved shootings by Savannah Police officers in 2022. Cook Jones declined last year to prosecute the officers in the other incidents, and it’s unclear why the case involving Ferguson has stalled for so long. Cook Jones, who has faced stiff criticism during her tenure, is running for re-election this fall in what is considered the county’s most-watched local race.
In the months after Lee’s death, The Current revealed that Ferguson had a violent history as a prison guard, and disciplinary action from former supervisors had been missed during the Savannah Police Department’s background checkto approve his hire. Four months after the shooting, Savannah police fired Ferguson because he had been arrested for driving under the influence.
Previously, the City of Savannah and Ferguson himself stated that Lee was a “genuine threat” to officers’ safety. Lee died from four gunshot wounds to the back and neck, and both the city and the Savannah Police Department are facing a wrongful death civil suit filed by Lee’s family that cites The Current‘s reporting.
As part of that suit, the city submitted the officer’s body camera footage of his 11-second deadly encounter with Lee. The Current reviewed that video ahead of the grand jury presentment Wednesday. Cook Jones called the body camera footage “a critical piece of evidence” in the case.
Lee’s family said they welcomed the grand jury’s decision. “Justice for Saudi has been far too long in coming, and we miss him every single day. The grand jury’s indictment today is finally one step towards justice,” the Lee family said in a statement. “We look forward to a jury holding this officer accountable for murdering Saudi and taking him away from us and all the people who loved him.”
Charges against police officers who shoot and kill on the job are a rarity in the U.S. criminal justice system. Few officers are arrested for fatal shootings and fewer are convicted. But ever since the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, those prosecutions have slightly increased according to data scientists who study the trend — and the indictment against Ferguson reflects that.
Cook Jones said the vast majority of officers she deals with keep their oath of office and help bring justice. But those that don’t need to be held accountable, she said.
“Anyone who serves in public office and takes an oath to represent the people, we consider those people, when it comes to criminal allegations, as regular members of the public,” Cook Jones said. “It’s important for us to send the message that they are not outside of the law.”
Like all officer-involved shootings in the state, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation looked into Lee’s death. The bureau completed its probe two months after it happened.
In the intervening two years, Cook Jones has not revealed many details about the case. At the press conference, the district attorney said the reason it took so long to begin prosecution of this case is because police shootings are legally complex.
She said her office received information as recently as two weeks ago needed to move forward with the case.
Over the summer, Lee’s family filed a civil suit alleging civil rights abuses and failures that allowed Ferguson on the force.
Ferguson had a reputation as an officer who harassed residents of Carver Village, a historically Black neighborhood, according to at least two neighbors who previously spoke with The Current.
He had past encounters with Lee as well, according to lawsuit documents. On the day Lee was killed, Ferguson and the other officer on the scene, Mackenzie Randle, “admitted to investigators that they suspected Mr. Lee of possessing a firearm,” according to Lee’s family in a recent court filing. Lee was a legal gun owner, however, the family said.
In its defense against the suit, the city filed Ferguson’s body-worn camera footage of the shooting into evidence this month. The city said the video proves that Ferguson was justified to shoot Lee.
Ferguson had “a split-second decision — do nothing, which would have presented the Deceased with an opportunity to fire his gun at the officers and others standing nearby or take action to neutralize what reasonably appeared to be a genuine threat to his safety and the safety of others,” the city wrote.
The federal judge overseeing the civil suit permitted The Current to view the video, but not copy it. The details presented in the footage provide a detailed view of the 11-second encounter that led to Lee’s death.
Ferguson and another officer, Mackenzie Randle, are shown on the footage following Lee on June 24, 2022, around the west Savannah neighborhood where he lived, a place that Ferguson had previously described as a “high crime area.”
Lee was walking along Gwinnett Street around noon when Ferguson, who was alone in his police vehicle, decided to stop him.
“All right, let’s go and get him for pedestrian (in the) roadway,” Ferguson said over the radio to Randle, according to the footage.
Ferguson pulled his car up to Lee and then jumped out of the vehicle. Randle parked his police car on the other side of Lee, blocking his exit. Ferguson greeted Lee.
“Everything good?” Lee asked.
“Yeah, everything’s good,” Ferguson replied. Lee told the officer that he was returning to his house.
The video shows that Lee tried to give Ferguson his wallet to show his weapons permit. At the same time, Ferguson took out a yellow taser and Lee began to back away with the wallet still in his hand, according to the body camera footage.
Lee then took a gun out of his holster and immediately started running away from both officers, the footage shows.
Lee can be seen with a handgun while running, but it was not pointed at officers.
What happened next is the basis for the Lee family civil suit. In its legal filing, the city alleges that Lee said “You’re going to have to kill me,” which police lawyers suggest shows Lee’s intent to harm Ferguson and others.
Lawyers for Lee’s family argue that he said something else: “You’re going to kill me.”
Ferguson took out his police handgun and fired four shots. Lee crumpled to the ground.
Minutes passed before Ferguson or Randle administered medical aid. Blood seeped out of Lee’s neck and pooled in the roadway.
After bystanders yelled at Ferguson to help Lee, the officer spent the next several minutes administering chest compressions on him. Lee was not moving.
A plainclothes officer arrived and told Ferguson to wait in his car. He returned to his cruiser, took a police union card out of his wallet, and called the Southern States Police Benevolent Association line asking for “representation.”
The body camera footage ended after that.
The Ferguson indictment marks the third former Savannah Police officer that Cook Jones has charged this year for misconduct on the job.
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with The Current.
