Lynette Gayle Jackson, 29
Riverdale, Georgia
September 22, 2000
Agencies: Georgia Bureau of Investigation GBI | Riverdale Police Department Georgia
Cause of death: Shooting
Last updated: almost 4 years ago
Overview 
On September 22, 2000, police in Riverdale, Georgia shoot and kill Lynette Gayle Jackson in an early morning, no-knock drug raid.
Less than a month earlier, Jackson had been at home when burglars broke into the same house. She escaped out a window and called the police while the intruders ransacked her home. When police arrived to answer the burglary call, they found a small bag of cocaine in the bedroom that belonged to Jackson’s boyfriend. While the quantity of cocaine wasn’t sufficient to press charges, police began a subsequent investigation of Jackson’s boyfriend that led to the September no-knock raid on her home.
As that raid transpired, Jackson, believing she was being robbed again, held a gun in her bedroom as the SWAT team entered. That’s when the police opened fire, killing her. Her maintenance man later told reporters she had been frightened by the previous burglary. Jackson had asked him to install new locks, security bars on her windows, and a motion-detecting security light. The man told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, “I think she was scared and she probably thought it was another break-in.”
No disciplinary action was taken against the officers
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Additional Resources:
- http://www.city-data.com/forum/atlanta/576415-police-botched-drug-raid-sentenced-2.html added June 28, 2020 17:20
- https://thefreethoughtproject.com/21st-century-tyranny-disturbing-trend-accidental-shootings-raids-wrong-addresses/ added June 28, 2020 17:20
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dKmaV_JiWcG8XBoRgP8b4e9Eopkpgt7FL7nyspvzAsE/edit#gid=0 added June 28, 2020 17:05