VALDOSTA — After weeks of controversy surrounding the death of Samuel Baker of Quitman, the preliminary autopsy results have returned.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Baker, who passed away during an altercation with a Quitman Police officer, died from a spinal cord fracture and dislocation he suffered when he fell to the ground after being tased.
Additionally, the GBI said that Baker’s enlarged heart, due to hypertension, played a role in his death.
Results are expected to be finalized Friday, investigators said. The results will now be turned over to the district attorney’s office, which will determine whether charges are filed against anyone involved in the incident.
Since Baker’s death, suspicions about proper procedures and protocol of the Quitman Police Department have been raised among citizens.
Last month, several people, led by Minister Greg Hamilton, met at the Shumate Church of Christ in Quitman and marched to the convenience store where the incident between Baker and the officer took place.
They then made their way to the Quitman Police Department, where they stopped. Names of black victims of violent crimes in Quitman, whose offenders were never brought to justice, were then called out.
Hamilton said that the autopsy report does not exonerate the police department from any wrongdoing.
“This whole ordeal is a result of an untrained man allowed to use a Taser,” Hamilton said, referring to the situation as a homicide waiting to happen. “Although the results disproved that Sammy died from the actual Taser, one can look at the surveillance of the altercation and the findings of the autopsy and conclude that the officer’s actions contributed to Sammy’s death.”
Hamilton expressed hopes that the justice system will do what is best in regards to the incident.
In the meantime, Hamilton is in the process of assembling two organizations in Quitman, Citizens for Hope and a Brooks County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He is seeking 100 people from the community to help form the groups. A membership drive is to be held this Sunday at 5 p.m. at Shumate Church of Christ.
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