Former Woodstock Police Department officer Grant Matthew Shaw pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after fatally shooting 20-year-old Emmanuel Malik Millard during a 2023 traffic stop and police pursuit that ended in Cobb County.
The incident began on October 12, 2023, when Woodstock officers attempted to stop Millard near Highway 92 and Hames Road for what police described as multiple traffic offenses, including failure to maintain lane. According to a Woodstock Police Department press release, Millard fled after the initial contact, leading officers on a pursuit.
Police said officers used a Pursuit Intervention Technique, commonly called a PIT maneuver, and Millard’s vehicle crashed near Highway 92 and Old Mountain Park Road in Cobb County. While officers were attempting to arrest Millard, an officer fired his weapon and struck him. Woodstock police said the incident was captured on the officer’s body-worn camera and that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was asked to conduct an independent investigation.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation later reported that Millard, 20, of Marietta, was shot after Woodstock officers performed the PIT maneuver and boxed in his vehicle. The GBI updated its release on October 14, 2023, confirming that Millard had died.
Shaw was later identified as the officer who fired the fatal shot. He resigned from the Woodstock Police Department about a week after the shooting, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A Cobb County grand jury indicted him in April 2024 on a felony count of involuntary manslaughter. The same report said the grand jury declined to indict him on felony murder and assault charges.
The indictment accused Shaw of reckless conduct, alleging that he pointed a Glock 9mm handgun at Millard with his finger on the trigger, endangering Millard’s safety and causing his death without intending to do so.
In December 2024, Shaw entered a non-negotiated guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors requested a 10-year sentence with the first two years served in confinement, but the judge suspended that sentence and ordered Shaw to complete 500 hours of community service, according to the AJC.
FOX 5 Atlanta reported that Shaw would not be incarcerated and described the sentence as 10 years of probation, two years of home confinement, and 500 hours of community service.
Andrew Lampros, an attorney for Millard’s family, criticized the outcome and said dash-camera and body-camera footage showed Millard was trying to comply with officers’ commands. Lampros told FOX 5 that traffic stops should not end with the person stopped being killed, especially when they present no danger to anyone.
The City of Woodstock told FOX 5 that it had cooperated with the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and said the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office was the best source for information about the criminal case and court proceedings.
For Millard’s family, the criminal case ended with a guilty plea but no prison sentence for the former officer who fired the shot. For the public, the case remains another example of how a traffic stop, a police pursuit, and a split-second trigger decision by an officer can end with a young man dead and a former cop walking away with probation and community service.
