By Tim Chitwood
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — A mid- July Muscogee County Jail crisis provoked a standoff between sheriff’s deputies and Columbus police officers so tense, a supervisor feared a fight would break out, according to police body camera recordings the Ledger-Enquirer reviewed.
That standoff followed a deputy’s profanely telling police officers he would not stop to help if he saw them getting beaten on the roadside, according to the recordings, which also captured:
- Sheriff’s personnel pouring out of the jail to confront police officers outside.
- Police officers complaining of being caught in circumstances beyond their control.
- A 911 call that appeared to go unanswered.
The conflict started around 8:30 p.m. that Saturday, when the sheriff-run jail would not book Columbus police prisoners who were picked up in a weekend crime suppression detail coordinated with the Georgia State Patrol. The standoff ended about 2 hours later when police took their suspects from jail to Sixth Avenue and released them with court summons, despite felony charges.
The dispute was born of the sheriff’s complaints that extra crime suppression operations were overwhelming his already overcrowded jail. He asked police to call the operation off, but they persisted in pursuing the detail.
Subsequently the sheriff’s office told the jail to process prisoners in the following priority: deputies’ first, state patrol officers’ second and Columbus police officers’ third.
When a deputy booking a suspect cut ahead of awaiting police officers that hot night, police blocked his car in and refused to move, though the deputy had a call to go to.
‘Watch this’
When Deputy Blaine Adkins arrived shortly after 9 p.m. and cut to the front of a line at the door to the booking area, where police Cpl. Christopher Snipes was among the officers waiting, police objected.
Snipes was recorded saying he and another officer had been waiting since they arrived with a prisoner at 8:23.
“You go in there before us, I’m going to raise hell,” Snipes told Adkins.
“Watch this,” Adkins said as the jail door opened for him.
Snipes was outraged. “That is the most unprofessional thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.
Seeing sheriff’s Lt. Donald Nestor standing just inside the open door, Snipes started to complain. “Don’t start yelling,” Nestor told Snipes as he motioned to Adkins and said, “Come on.”
To the cops outside, Nestor said, “Y’all have directives. I have directives. Sheriff said ain’t nobody comin’ in, only five at a time, S.O. and G.S.P. get priority, then you guys. This is beyond my control. Don’t yell at me.”
When Adkins came out about an hour later, he found police Cpl. Andrew Fairbanks’ cruiser blocking him in. Adkins asked Fairbanks to move, but the officer’s supervisor, Sgt. Vincent Lockhart Jr., ordered him not to.
“So I got a call to go to, and I can’t go to a call because y’all want to play f—^---- stupid-a— childish games,” Adkins told Lockhart. “Move the g------n car, or I’m going to move the m----------r myself,” he yelled.
“Go move it,” Lockhart replied. “How are you going to move it? Go move it.”
“Y’all are acting like a bunch of g------n kids,” Adkins said before storming off.
This exchange was recorded on police Cpl. Alex Jashinski’s body camera, which also captured his reaction. “I’m going to go get my stuff, because this is getting stupid,” Jashinski said, walking back to his car. To another officer, he yelled, “I’m not going to be de-armed outside the jail!”
He got a weapon and walked back.
‘On the wall’
Sheriff Greg Countryman said he warned police of the dangers of overcrowding the jail, well in advance of their operation.
On July 3, he sent out a news release saying overcrowding posed risks to both inmates and staff. The next day, he forwarded the news release to the mayor and city manager, with an email adding in part, “Right now, our inmate population needs to be reduced by 100. As I have requested, we cannot handle any additional operations. We have ceased any we had planned.”
In response to L-E inquiries about changing the jail booking order during a police operation, the sheriff wrote that at the time, he was out of the office recovering from knee surgery. His communications with the jail staff were via email, he said:
“I did have a conversation with my chief deputy regarding allowing our deputies to be processed as normal since they were not part of the 47-plus officers involved with CPD’s operation. We did not feel that it was fair to our deputies being they were not a part of this large-scale detail to have to wait. They would not be in the jail near the number of times as those assigned to the detail.”
Under normal circumstances, the jail at Sixth Avenue and 10th Street can book a prisoner in 20-30 minutes: The officer’s allowed through a gate off Sixth Avenue and drives around to the open sally port to park, gets the prisoner and paperwork out, walks into the booking area and waits for corrections officers to identify and fingerprint the suspect, check the charges and a court date, and collect any medical information needed.
Because officers stand against a wall as they wait, they call this process in booking “on the wall.”
Once the jail takes a suspect in, the jail becomes responsible for the inmate’s care. Until then, the arresting officer is accountable for the prisoner’s health and safety.
On July 15, the first night of the crime detail, the jail caused a backlog when it made police wait to book prisoners. Officers the next night were recorded on police body cams saying they waited hours, from around 3 a.m. to 6 a.m., to book suspects.
So when that happened again July 16 and Adkins cut in line, and then was blocked in, tempers flared on both sides.
‘Don’t want a fight’
“I hope I don’t see you getting your f------g ass whipped on the street, because I’m going to drive the f—k by, and you can tell your g------n supervisor that!”
That’s one remark Deputy Adkins yelled at police officers standing outside the jail, after learning a patrol car blocked him in the sally port. When Adkins complained to his colleagues, Lt. Nestor came out.
“We can’t play this game now. I’d hate to get the chief over here,” Nestor said as he walked out at 10:11 p.m. to deal with the dispute in the sally port.
He went to where Fairbanks’ cruiser blocked Adkins’ and was recorded saying this on a cell phone call: “Hey chief, I’m sorry. We’ve got a situation here. We’ve got CPD won’t let our guys out, and they’re about to go to blows.”
Nestor handed his phone to Fairbanks, who on his body cam said he was speaking with Deputy Police Chief Ronald Hastings. While Fairbanks was on the phone, a sheriff’s sergeant came to his car window and interrupted, demanding to know who Fairbanks’ supervisor was, before Nestor called him away.
Once Fairbanks got off the phone, he started to move his car, but Lockhart stopped him again. Frustrated, Fairbanks left the keys in the vehicle and walked away.
As frustrations grew, several deputies and corrections officers came out of the jail, gathering behind Nestor as police officers stood facing them, with eight to 10 on each side.
Nestor turned around and told his personnel to go back inside: “I don’t want a fight... Everybody in. Everybody in,” he said, though no one left. Later he tried again, saying, “OK, let’s get some of our own group back in please. I’m trying to defuse the situation.”
He told Adkins to stay in his car, but Adkins did not. Ten to 15 minutes passed as the two sides faced off.
Jashinski was so focused on the deputies standing across from him that he would not look at some prisoner paperwork Officer Michael Aguillar tried to hand him. “I’m not dealing with that,” he said. “I’ve got more to do.”
Arriving late, Aguillar did not know what was happening. “What’s going on?” he asked Fairbanks.
“I don’t know what the f—k is going on,” Fairbanks replied. “I don’t want to be part of this, dude.”
Other officers expressed similar frustrations. “We’re in the middle of a big s—t show right now,” one said.
“This is as bad as it can get,” Aguillar told Fairbanks, who replied: “It’s pretty bad, dude, because that deputy, he was saying, ‘I’m about to arrest you for obstruction’ to me, because this guy’s got a call, but then my sergeant’s telling me not to move.”
“What about arresting all them for not doing their job?” Aguillar asked.
At 10:13 p.m., a 911 call could be heard over police radio.
“I know most of us are kind of at a standstill,” a dispatcher said. “Do I have anybody on Forrest Road in reference to a 7511?”
A “seventy-five-eleven” is police code for a residential burglary in progress.
“Nah, headquarters,” police Capt. Greg Touchberry was recorded responding. “We’re all standing on the wall at the jail.”
“Fantastic,” the dispatcher replied.
In T-shirt and jeans, Capt. Touchberry arrived at the jail at 10:25 p.m. He asked waiting officers what charges their suspects faced (all were felonies), then ordered them to put the suspects back in patrol cars and drive to Sixth Avenue, just outside the jail perimeter.
“This is sad, man, they doin’ this s—t,” a prisoner complained as he was driven away.
As police parked on the avenue, one young officer turned to another and murmured, “Is this a protest?”
Though suspected felons typically are not released with only a court summons, all the remaining cases were handled that way, the prisoners freed on the downtown street, left to find their own way home.
The aftermath
Both Blackmon and Countryman have since told the L-E that they believe conflicts between the two agencies have been exaggerated, and that what happened that weekend has not affected their working relationship.
“We assist one another on a daily basis,” said Blackmon. He said he could not comment on details of the July 16 incident because the police department is still investigating.
As with Countryman, the L-E sent Blackmon a slate of questions; some related not just to the jail incident, but to police staffing and current crime statistics. Blackmon did not respond.
In emails answering the L-E’s questions, Countryman wrote of the incident: “I will not refer to it as a face-off. Deputy Adkins is a mild-mannered person. When I learned he was involved, I knew something had to happen to get him to that point. That surely was the case.”
The trigger was Lockhart’s refusal to let Fairbanks move the police car, the sheriff said: “From there tempers flared. All involved are bigger than what happened... This one isolated incident cannot define who we are called to be. A few want to make this larger than what it is.”
Countryman said he met with the police chief, Mayor Skip Henderson, City Manager Isaiah Hugley and City Attorney Clifton Fay on July 19 to discuss these issues. They agreed the jail needs to be involved in planning future crime suppression operations, he said.
Corrections officers must have the staffing and advanced notice to handle a rush of prisoners, else a backlog creates dangerous conditions, Countryman said.
“Packing individuals in a crowded space like sardines is not the answer,” wrote the sheriff, explaining that during the first night of the July detail, 20 to 25 prisoners were crowded into a single holding cell, risking the spread of COVID and personal conflict.
“We must classify every arrestee to see who they can and cannot be in the same cell with,” the sheriff said. “We must look at their medical and mental history to find out if they are validated gang members. We must look at their past behavior to determine where they can be placed safely. When officers make the arrests and book them in, they miss what else is involved.”
Blackmon said police have tried to lessen the load on the jail during special operations by setting up their own booking process for suspects who require only a principal summons to court. Officers did that earlier this year, he said.
As mayor, Henderson also serves as the city’s public safety director, overseeing city departments such as the police, fire and emergency medical services. But he has no authority over the sheriff, who like the mayor is an elected official answering only to voters.
Henderson said the July 19 meeting was intended to “just sort of reaffirm the fact that we’ve got to work together, and typically they do: Our sheriff’s department and our police department typically work very well together, looking after each other.”
The sheriff will be given more advanced notice of other special operations, he said: “We do communicate with the sheriff. We need to make sure we continue to do that, so that he can make whatever arrangements he needs to make.”