Atlanta Police Sergeant Charged with Using Excessive Force

Atlanta Police Sergeant Trevor King, 48, of Rex, Georgia, was charged by a federal grand jury with violating the rights of a man by using excessive force against him on Oct. 13, 2014.

The indictment was announced today by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division, and U.S. Attorney John Horn of the Northern District of Georgia.

According to the indictment and other publicly available information, in 2014, King was working off-duty as a security officer at a Walmart store located on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in downtown Atlanta.  On the evening of Oct. 13, 2014, King, dressed in his APD uniform and carrying an expandable baton, stopped a customer from exiting the store because he wrongfully believed the customer had shoplifted.  King allegedly grabbed the customer’s shirt and began to strike the man with his baton.  King struck the customer multiple times, breaking the customer’s leg. 

An indictment is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Sanjay Patel of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Alan Gray of the Northern District of Georgia.