Officer(s) involved: Police Officer Daniel MacKenzie.
Synopsis: After being dispatched to a suspected prowler call, Officer MacKenzie ran down a suspect and stopped him with a single shot from his taser. Bodycam footage shows at least two other officers present as the handcuffed suspect was placed in the back seat of Officer MacKenzie's car. While transporting the suspect to jail, Office MacKenzie alleges the suspect began kicking the car's door and partition. Officer MacKenzie pulls his patrol car over, speaks to the suspect, and then tases and punches him in the head.
The Georgia Open Records Act requires law enforcement agencies to release initial incident reports to anyone who requests them. Unlike evidence and other investigative records, the police report is always public and must be released regardless of the status of the case. Appen Media Group sued Roswell Police in 2018 for routinely delaying and withholding police incident reports from its newspaper reporters. The city of Roswell denied wrongdoing, although the city settled the lawsuit, agreeing to pay half of Appen's legal fees and to release police records to reporters without delay going forward.
When the incident report for this case was requested, the police department released six pages of information. It was discovered that the full report was twelve pages and was not released until two years after the incident. Some suspected a coverup. Officer MacKenzie resigned from the Roswell Police Department during an internal investigation in 2019, and Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training revoked MacKenzie's police certifications.
Outcome: On 28 February 2022, Daniel MacKenzie pled guilty to punching and tasing the handcuffed man. According to an agreement with the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, MacKenzie will serve 12 months for battery and simple battery, followed by five years probation for aggravated assault, making a false statement and two counts of violating an oath by a public officer. Fulton County records indicate MacKenzie was released from jail on 30 September 2022.
All charges against the suspect were dropped after the District Attorney reviewed the abuse video.