Bobby Daniels sprang into action the moment he heard that his son, 25-year-old Bias, has suffered a mental breakdown and was holding a security guard hostage.
As a private peace officer, Daniels was skilled in de-escalation and was able to put those skills to use when he arrived at the mobile home park in Douglasville. He had just convinced his son to give up his gun and set it down when police arrived.
Moments later, Daniels was shot by the police.
Police have insisted that the officers believed their lives to be in danger because, they say, Daniels and his son were struggling over the weapon, and it was at one point pointed at the officers. Other accounts insist that Daniels himself pointed the weapon at police.
“I think that he could have been trying to help the situation instead of hurting it, but when he pointed the gun at the officers, he was shot,” asserted Douglas County Sheriff Phil Miller.
“As the fight continued between Bias and Bobby, the handgun was pointed at the deputies, at which point one of the deputy [sic] fired, striking and killing Bobby,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigations found.
But Garret Daniels, nephew of Bobby Daniels, was on the scene and insisted that Daniels was trying to slap the gun off of the car, where his son had set it down. “He was trying to protect [Bias]. That’s all he was trying to do.”
The widely varying accounts of the situation have brought the actions of the officers into question.
“Bobby Daniels is a veteran of the U.S. military,” attorney Stewart pointed out. “He is a father of five, married, a great man and the last person that would ever point a gun at an officer.”
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