The family of Bounkham “Baby Bou Bou” Phonesavanh, according to their attorney Mawuli Davis, “was hoping the grand jury in Habersham County, Georgia, would acknowledge that the conduct of officers”, who participated in a drug raid in May that ended with the child being severely injured, “was wreckless and that that wrecklessness is a criminal offense, and that the warrant that was taken, was taken with misleading and false information.” None of that happened.
On Monday, the grand jury recommended that no criminal charges be filed against the officers involved in the drug raid that went bad. The baby received injuries to his face and chest when a grenade-type device, that landed in his crib, exploded. His nose had to be reattached. “This baby still wakes up with nightmares”, says Davis. He adds that the baby, who turns 2 years old this weekend, “is disfigured for life.”
Davis represents the family. They live in Wisconsin and were visiting Georgia when the incident happened. Family spokesman Marcus Coleman called the decision by the grand jury “disheartening” and said that the baby’s mother was “extremely upset.”
(Credit: Maria Boynton/CBS Local)
Earlier in the day Monday, in anticipation of the grand jury’s decision, Coleman, Davis, and a group of supporters, including Congressman Hank Johnson, held a prayer vigil outside the Georgia State Capitol. Reverend Timothy McDonald, Pastor of the First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta said, “I would hope that they would not make a decision based solely on legal concerns, but that there is a mother on that grand jury, there is a father in that grand jury, who will be concerned about the welfare and the well-being of this family. We feel that it is absolutely incumbent upon us to pray.” With heads bowed, McDonald said,”We pray for Baby Bou Bou, his mother, his father, his siblings. We pray for the D.A. of Habersham County.”
District Attorney Brian Rickman is quoted as defending the ruling by the grand jury.
Criminal charges could still happen. On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates issued a statement that said, “Federal authorities have been participating in the investigation of this terrible incident, and now that a state grand jury has declined to return an indictment, we will review the matter for possible federal charges.”
Coleman said that when he told Baby Bou Bou’s mother about the decision of the grand jury, she told him “this is not finished, this is not over.”
(Credit: Maria Boynton/CBS Local)
