The shooting of Anthony Hill, a U.S. Air Force veteran, occurred on March 9, 2015, in Chamblee, Georgia, near Atlanta.
Hill, fatally shot by police officer Robert Olsen, suffered from mental illness and was naked and unarmed at the time of the incident.
[1][2] The incident was covered in local and national press and sparked the involvement of Black Lives Matter and other advocacy groups who demonstrated their anger at the shooting.
[3][4][5] Nearing the fourth anniversary of the homicide, it was decided that Olsen's trial would be rescheduled for September 23, 2019, with delays including three successive judges having recused themselves in the case.
[11] According to his girlfriend, he had recently stopped taking his medication due to muscular side effects, believing he would see his doctor at the VA within the week.
Hill was noted to be acting erratically when police were called; he had hung from his second-story balcony in his apartment complex, and his speech was slurred.
[10] Officer Robert Olsen, employed by the Dekalb County Police Department for seven years, was dispatched to the scene[8] and found him in the parking lot of the complex.
[5] The shooting came in the wake of national social unrest and racial debate after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri,[5][11] which inspired the Black Lives Matter movement.
[12] Hill had remarked on the national debate three days prior to his death, posting on Facebook, "[t]he key thing to remember is, #blacklivesmatter, ABSOLUTELY, but not more so than any other life.
[12] In January 2016, District Attorney Robert D. James Jr. of DeKalb County announced that he would ask the criminal grand jury to indict, and that a warrant had been issued for Olsen's arrest.
[19] The district attorney said that Olsen was charged with making a false statement because he had told another officer during the investigation that Hill had hit him in the chest.
[13][21][22][1] Unlike any other state in the US, Georgia allows officers (but not regular civilians) to be present during the entire grand jury hearing and to make a statement at the very end that is unchallenged by anyone.
[23] In anticipation of the announcement in late January, dozens of activists known as Rise Up Georgia camped outside the courthouse in tents, displaying hand-made signs in support of Hill for several days before the grand jury announced the indictment of Officer Olsen on all six counts; the group maintained a 24-hour operation in front of the courthouse by sleeping in shifts.