At least 385 people have been shot and killed by police nationwide during the first five months of this year, more than two a day, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Fatal police shootings in 2015 approaching 400 nationwide

A rosary is draped over a portrait of 17-year-old Jessie Hernandez. The teen, who was killed by Denver police officers in January as she and friends allegedly tried to run them down in a stolen car, is among eight people younger than 18 who have been fatally shot by police this year. (David Zalubowski/Associated Press)

 

In an alley in Denver, police gunned down a 17-year-old girl joyriding in a stolen car. In the backwoods of North Carolina, police opened fire on a gun-wielding moonshiner. And in a high-rise apartment in Birmingham, Ala., police shot an elderly man after his son asked them to make sure he was okay. Douglas Harris, 77, answered the door with a gun.

The three are among at least 385 people shot and killed by police nationwide during the first five months of this year, more than two a day, according to a Washington Post analysis. That is more than twice the rate of fatal police shootings tallied by the federal government over the past decade, a count that officials concede is incomplete.

“These shootings are grossly under­reported,” said Jim Bueermann, a former police chief and president of the Washington-based Police Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving law enforcement. “We are never going to reduce the number of police shootings if we don’t begin to accurately track this information.”

A national debate is raging about police use of deadly force, especially against minorities. To understand why and how often these shootings occur, The Washington Post is compiling a database of every fatal shooting by police in 2015, as well as of every officer killed by gunfire in the line of duty. The Post looked exclusively at shootings, not killings by other means, such as stun guns and deaths in police custody.

Using interviews, police reports, local news accounts and other sources, The Post tracked more than a dozen details about each killing through Friday, including the victim’s race, whether the person was armed and the circumstances that led to the fatal encounter. The result is an unprecedented examination of these shootings, many of which began as minor incidents and suddenly escalated into violence.

Among The Post’s findings:

●About half the victims were white, half minority. But the demographics shifted sharply among the unarmed victims, two-thirds of whom were black or Hispanic. Overall, blacks were killed at three times the rate of whites or other minorities when adjusting by the population of the census tracts where the shootings occurred.

●The vast majority of victims — more than 80 percent — were armed with potentially lethal objects, primarily guns, but also knives, machetes, revving vehicles and, in one case, a nail gun.
●Forty-nine people had no weapon, while the guns wielded by 13 others turned out to be toys. In all, 16 percent were either carrying a toy or were unarmed.

●The dead ranged in age from 16 to 83. Eight were children younger than 18, including Jessie Hernandez, 17, who was shot three times by Denver police officers as she and a carload of friends allegedly tried to run them down.
The Post analysis also sheds light on the situations that most commonly gave rise to fatal shootings. About half of the time, police were responding to people seeking help with domestic disturbances and other complex social situations: A homeless person behaving erratically. A boyfriend threatening violence. A son trying to kill himself.

Ninety-two victims — nearly a quarter of those killed — were identified by police or family members as mentally ill.

In Miami Gardens, Fla., Catherine Daniels called 911 when she couldn’t persuade her son, Lavall Hall, a 25-year-old black man, to come in out of the cold early one morning in February. A diagnosed schizophrenic who stood 5-foot-4 and weighed barely 120 pounds, Hall was wearing boxer shorts and an undershirt and waving a broomstick when police arrived. They tried to stun him with a Taser gun and then shot him.

 

The other half of shootings involved non-domestic crimes, such as robberies, or the routine duties that occupy patrol officers, such as serving warrants.

Nicholas T. Thomas, a 23-year-old black man, was killed in March when police in Smyrna, Ga., tried to serve him with a warrant for failing to pay $170 in felony probation fees. Thomas fled the Goodyear tire shop where he worked as a mechanic, and police shot into his car.

Although race was a dividing line, those who died by police gunfire often had much in common. Most were poor and had a history of run-ins with law enforcement over mostly small-time crimes, sometimes because they were emotionally troubled.

Both things were true of Daniel Elrod, a 39-year-old white man. Elrod had been arrested at least 16 times over the past 15 years; he was taken into protective custody twice last year because Omaha police feared he might hurt himself.
On the day he died in February, Elrod robbed a Family Dollar store. Police said he ran when officers arrived, jumping on top of a BMW in the parking lot and yelling, “Shoot me, shoot me.” Elrod, who was unarmed, was shot three times as he made a “mid-air leap” to clear a barbed-wire fence, according to police records.

Dozens of other people also died while fleeing from police, The Post analysis shows, including a significant proportion — 20 percent — of those who were unarmed. Running is such a provocative act that police experts say there is a name for the injury officers inflict on suspects afterward: a “foot tax.”

Police are authorized to use deadly force only when they fear for their lives or the lives of others. So far, just three of the 385 fatal shootings have resulted in an officer being charged with a crime — less than 1 percent.
 
The low rate mirrors the findings of a Post investigation in April that found that of thousands of fatal police shootings over the past decade, only 54 had produced criminal ­charges. Typically, those cases involved layers of damning evidence challenging the officer’s account. Of the cases resolved, most officers were cleared or acquitted.

In all three 2015 cases in which charges were filed, videos emerged showing the officers shooting a suspect during or after a foot chase:

●In South Carolina, police officer Michael Slager was charged with murder in the death of Walter Scott, a 50-year-old black man, who ran after a traffic stop. Slager’s attorney declined to comment.

●In Oklahoma, reserve deputy Robert Bates was charged with second-degree manslaughter 10 days after he killed Eric Harris, a 44-year-old black man. 

●And in Pennsylvania, officer Lisa Mearkle was charged with criminal homicide six weeks after she shot and killed David Kassick, a 59-year-old white man, who refused to pull over for a traffic stop. Her attorney did not return calls for comment.

In many other cases, police agencies have determined that the shootings were justified. But many law enforcement leaders are calling for greater scrutiny.

After nearly a year of protests against police brutality and with a White House task force report calling for reforms, a dozen current and former police chiefs and other criminal justice officials said police must begin to accept responsibility for the carnage. They argue that a large number of the killings examined by The Post could be blamed on poor policing.

“We have to get beyond what is legal and start focusing on what is preventable. Most are preventable,” said Ronald L. Davis, a former police chief who heads the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
Police “need to stop chasing down suspects, hopping fences and landing on top of someone with a gun,” Davis said. “When they do that, they have no choice but to shoot.”

As a start, criminologists say the federal government should systematically analyze police shootings. Currently, the FBI struggles to gather the most basic data. Reporting is voluntary, and since 2011, less than 3 percent of the nation’s 18,000 state and local police agencies have reported fatal shootings by their officers to the FBI. As a result, FBI records over the past decade show only about 400 police shootings a year — an average of 1.1 deaths per day.

According to The Post’s analysis, the daily death toll so far for 2015 is close to 2.6. At that pace, police will have shot and killed nearly 1,000 people by the end of the year.

“We have to understand the phenomena behind these fatal encounters,” Bueermann said. “There is a compelling social need for this, but a lack of political will to make it happen.”

For the vast majority of departments, a fatal shooting is a rare event. Only 306 agencies have recorded one so far this year, and most had only one, the Post analysis shows.

However, 19 state and local departments were involved in at least three fatal shootings. Los Angeles police lead the nation with eight. The latest occurred May 5, when Brendon Glenn, a 29-year-old homeless black man, was shot after an altercation outside a Venice bar.

Oklahoma City police have killed four people, including an 83-year-old white man wielding a machete.

“We want to do the most we can to keep from taking someone’s life, even under the worst circumstances,” said Oklahoma City Police Chief William Citty. “There are just going to be some shootings that are unavoidable.”

In Bakersfield, Calif., all three of the department’s killings occurred in a span of 10 days in March. The most recent involved Adrian Hernandez, a 22-year-old Hispanic man accused of raping his roommate, dousing her with flammable liquid and setting fire to their home.

After a manhunt, police cornered Hernandez, who jumped out of his car holding a BB gun. Police opened fire, and some Bakersfield residents say they are glad the officers did.

“I’m relieved he can’t come back here, to be honest with you,” said Brian Haver, who lives next door to the house Hernandez torched. “If he came out holding a gun, what were they supposed to do?”

Although law enforcement officials say many shootings are preventable, that is not always true. In dozens of cases, officers rushed into volatile situations and saved lives. Examples of police heroism abound.

In Tempe, Ariz., police rescued a 25-year-old woman who had been stabbed and tied up and was screaming for help. Her boyfriend, Matthew Metz, a 26-year-old white man, also stabbed an officer before he was shot and killed, according to police records.

In San Antonio, a patrol officer heard gunshots and rushed to the parking lot of Dad’s Karaoke bar to find a man shooting into the crowd. Richard Castilleja, a 29-year-old Latino, had hit two men and was still unloading his weapon when he was shot and killed, according to police records.

And in Los Angeles County, a Hawthorne police officer working overtime was credited with saving the life of a 12-year-old boy after a frantic woman in a gray Mercedes pulled alongside the officer and said three men in a white Cadillac were following her and her son.

Seconds later, the Cadillac roared up. Robert Washington, a 37-year-old black man, jumped out and began shooting into the woman’s car.

“He had two revolvers and started shooting both of them with no words spoken. He shot and killed the mom, and then he started shooting at the kid,” said Eddie Aguirre, a Los Angeles County homicide detective investigating the case.

“The deputy got out of his patrol car and started shooting,” Aguirre said. “He saved the boy’s life.”

In about half the shootings, police were responding to non-domestic criminal situations, with robberies and traffic infractions ranking among the most common ­offenses. Nearly half of blacks and other minorities were killed under such circumstances. So were about a third of whites.

In North Carolina, a police officer searching for clues in a hit-and-run case approached a green and white mobile home owned by Lester Brown, a 58-year-old white man. On the front porch, the officer spotted an illegal liquor still. He called for backup, and drug agents soon arrived with a search warrant.

People shot to death by police and how they were allegedly armed

Officers knocked on the door and asked Brown to secure his dog. Instead, Brown dashed upstairs and grabbed a Soviet SKS rifle, according to police reports.

Neighbor Joe Guffey Jr. told a local TV reporter that he was sitting at home with his dogs when the shooting started: “Pow, pow, pow, pow.” Brown was hit seven times and pronounced dead at the scene.

While Brown allegedly stood his ground, many others involved in criminal activity chose to flee when confronted by police. Kassick, for example, attracted Mearkle’s attention because he had expired vehicle inspection stickers. On the day he died, Kassick was on felony probation for drunken driving and had drugs in his system, police and autopsy reports show.

After failing to pull over, Kassick drove to his sister’s house in Hummelstown, Pa., jumped out of the car and ran. Mearkle repeatedly struck Kassick with a stun gun and then shot him twice in the back while he was face-down in the snow.

Jimmy Ray Robinson, a.k.a. the “Honey Bun Bandit,” allegedly robbed five convenience stores in Central Texas, grabbing some of the sticky pastries along the way. Robinson, a 51-year-old black man, fled when he spotted Waco police officers staking out his home.

Robinson sped off in reverse in a green Ford Explorer. It got stuck in the mud, and four Waco officers opened fire.

“They think they can outrun the officers. They don’t realize how dangerous it is,” said Samuel Lee Reid, executive director of the Atlanta Citizen Review Board, which investigates police shootings and recently launched a “Don’t Run” campaign. “The panic sets in,” and “all they can think is that they don’t want to get caught and go back to jail.”

Officers from the Alabama Bureau of Investigation take measurements and scour the scene for evidence after Shane Watkins, who had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was fatally shot by police in his mother’s driveway in Moulton, Ala. (Gary Cosby Jr./Decatur Daily)

 

The most troubling ­cases began with a cry for help.

About half the shootings occurred after family members, neighbors or strangers sought help from police because someone was suicidal, behaving erratically or threatening violence.

Take Shane Watkins, a 39-year-old white man, who died in his mother’s driveway in Moulton, Ala.

Watkins had never been violent, and family members were not afraid for their safety when they called Lawrence County sheriff’s deputies in March. But Watkins, who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was off his medication. Days earlier, he had declared himself the “god of the fifth element” and demanded whiskey and beer so he could “cleanse the earth with it,” said his sister, Yvonne Cote.

Then he started threatening to shoot himself and his dog, Slayer. His mother called Cote, who called 911. Cote got back on the phone with her mother, who watched Watkins walk onto the driveway holding a box cutter to his chest. A patrol car pulled up, and Cote heard her mother yell: “Don’t shoot! He doesn’t have a gun!”

“Then I heard the gunshots,” Cote said.

Lawrence County sheriff’s officials declined to comment and have refused to release documents related to the case.

“There are so many unanswered questions,” she said. “All he had was a box cutter. Wasn’t there some other way for them to handle this?”

Catherine Daniels called police for the same reason. “I wanted to get my son help,” she said. Instead, officers Peter Ehrlich and Eddo Trimino fired their stun guns after Hall hit them with the metal end of the broomstick, according to investigative documents.

“Please don’t hurt my child,” Daniels pleaded, in a scene captured by a camera mounted on the dash of one of the patrol cars.

“Get on the f---ing ground or you’re dead!” Trimino shouted. Then he fired five shots.

Police spokesman Mike Wright declined to comment on the case. Daniels said no one from the city has contacted her. “I haven’t received anything. No apology, nothing.”

But hours after her son was killed, Daniels said, officers investigating the shooting dropped off a six-pack of Coca-Cola.

“I regret calling them,” Daniels said. “They took my son’s life.”

Ted Mellnik, John Muyskens and Amy Brittain contributed to this report.

About this article

 

As part of an ongoing examination of police accountability, The Washington Post has attempted to track every fatal shooting by law enforcement nationwide since January, as well as the number of officers who were fatally shot in the line of duty.

The Post compiled the data using news reports, police records, open sources on the Internet and other original reporting. Several organizations, including Killed by Police and Fatal Encounters, have been collecting information about people who die during encounters with police.

The Post documented only those incidents in which a police officer, while on duty, shot and killed a civilian. Cases in which officers were shot to death were also tabulated.

To comprehensively examine the issue, a database was compiled with information about each incident, including the deceased’s age, race, gender, location and general circumstances. The Post also noted whether police reported that the person was armed and, if so, with what type of weapon.

The FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention log fatal police shootings, but the data the two federal agencies gather is incomplete. The Post analyzed a decade of FBI and CDC records as part of the study.

To examine racial and economic patterns, The Post identified the location of every fatal shooting and compared it with the composition of the surrounding census tract.

The data, which will be collected through the end of the year, will be made public at a future date.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com

2 DRIVERS KILLED IN HORRIFIC CRASHES WHEN THEY REAR-ENDED CONSTRUCTION TRUCKS ON I-75 IN PEMBROKE PINES, FLORIDA. SLOW DOWN AT CONSTRUCTION SITES; YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.

MAY 29, 2015

PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. (WSVN)

Authorities continue to investigate a fatal multi-vehicle crash that left two drivers dead Thursday night and shutdown the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 for several hours afterward.

Friday morning, the two victims killed in the crash that involved two cars and two tractor-trailer trucks, were identified as 17-year-old Liza Angulo and 29-year-old Jonathan Raymon Astaphan. Both were from Miramar.

Angulo recently graduated American Heritage School where she made quite an impression. "She was an honors student," said American Heritage School Principal Elise Blum. "She was a good student in challenging classes. She was loved by all her teachers. She was very involved in the yearbook."

Domenick Feliciano, a friend of Angulo said, "Liza was a really kind person. She was a down-to-earth girl. She just put a smile on the face of everyone she was around."

Tihun Lowe said, "She was feisty. She was lively. She was amazing. I love her."

The Florida Highway Patrol said the accident happened near the Pines Boulevard exit, just after 11:30 p.m. Thursday. According to FHP, a semi-truck loaded with concrete barrier walls was pulling out of a construction site onto the southbound lanes of I-75 when it was hit by a Mitsubishi driven by Astaphan.

The Mitsubishi slid under the truck, ripping off its roof, killing Astaphan instantly. A female passenger in that car, identified as Patricia Rolle, was transported to Memorial Regional Hospital and remains in serious condition. FHP Sgt. Mark Wysocky said it was a miracle she was alive when rescuers responded to the scene. "It's amazing that she even survived at all," he noted, "because the way you saw the car, it's amazing that anyone would have survived out of that car."

Following that, Angulo crashed into the rear of the semi-truck loaded with concrete barriers. Part of that load fell onto her white BMW, killing her instantly. "As part of the crash, the wall sections came over onto the top of one vehicle," said Wysocky.

FHP said the chain reaction crash ended with another semi-truck crashing into one of the barrier walls that fell on the road. That truck then also crashed into the trailer. The drivers of the two semis were not injured.

Friends of Angulo showed up to the scene after they say her mom was worried that she hadn't returned home yet. "My friend text me about there's a really bad accident on I-75, and he didn't know what happened," said Lowe, "so he asked on the app if there's a white BMW, and no one responded. He told me, 'Go check it out' because he had a bad feeling about it.

"I called them to tell them, 'Can you guys check the area?' I'm going on 75, and the first thing I saw when I came on 75 was a bad accident, and it was a white car. I started calling the construction workers asking them if it was a BMW, and they said it was and then everything just went downhill from there."

Friends said Angulo got the BMW as a graduation gift from her parents. They also said she was planning to attend the University of Miami in the fall.

The school's principal described the teen as an intelligent and caring young lady with a bright future ahead of her. "She touched many, many people on this campus," said Blum, "because she was not only good as a student, she was a good person. She was kind to everybody."

FHP continues to investigate, including looking into whether the barriers were properly secured on the truck and if the tragedy could have been prevented.

Here is what commenters wrote (unedited):

I warned State Highways and called FHP and State Highway repeatedly about this issue, there is no acceleration/deacceleration lanes, project is not being done safely, FHP Ignored my requests, I have called 911 several times, entering a interstate road at 15-20 MPH would be negligent driving in any other state! I told them this was going to happen! Somebody should file a lawsuit against the state! No signaling when entering, crossing five lanes of interstate @ 15 MPH. Dust clouds blocking driver view, construction vehicles facing oncoming traffic at night with headlights on temporarily blinding oncoming traffic. Not in compliance with MUTCD (Federal Law), further I also notified (FHWA).

I completely agree. I travel this road all the time around the same time this happened, and it's utterly dangerous, and the trucks entering the highway are careless. The reason they're careless, is because they see their vehicle as just a job, and know that if anything comes colliding into them, they'll be fine, and the worst case is their employer gets the brunt of it with law suits. There needs be more accountability and precaution when foregoing construction jobs like this, especially late night with the blinding lights and debris blowing everywhere. At 11:30 PM on this road, the traffic is near none, and in order for an accident like this to occur, it's almost certain that the truck driver was negligent about safety and should thoroughly be investigated.

Our cars are equipped with many safety devices these days, that are there for our safety.... such is the windshield, is there for you, to be on the look out for your on coming traffic, and to protect you from flying objects and other hazard things. At the same time.. moving the foot from the gas, will slow down the car, which in case you are paying attention.. will save your life. The phone is not part of the car in any way or shape what so ever... texting will pull away from the pesky oncoming traffic and the trucks... trucks are huuughes and can't be missed.. if you missed a truck.. trust you weren't on looking through your windshield. In construction site the posted speed is usually 45 to 55mph, which the numbers were selected not to harass you.. but they are selected based on the weight and the speed of your car. You can stop a car in less than 5 seconds if you slam on the brakes, the moment your brain interpreted danger at that speed. Stop accusing others of your irresponsible driving and take account of your actions.. if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.. btw.. truck drivers are very courteous, and they are professionals, and they do know what they are drive...

Completely avoidable. Smells like a massive industrial accident lawsuit. Dump trucks and flat beds entering a 70 mph high-speed roadway without acceleration lanes? Vehicles traveling in the lanes at legal speeds have had to swerve and taken evasive action to avoid collisions. All construction needs to STOP immediately until corrective action is taken to avoid a repeat. We all knew it wasn't a matter of "if" a massive wreck would happen, but "when." Why weren't the concrete dividers secured on the flatbed? I fault the construction company and the approving authority, probably FDOT.

While distracted driving i.e. texting, talking, holding a dog on your lap, eating, applying makeup contribute to most wrecks, driving on I-75 even while completely attentive will not help if a truck suddenly pulls out in front of you. You slow down for the truck, then the driver behind you slams into you.

How sad that two young lives had to be lost in order to highlight an issue known to the motoring public and should have been anticipated by those in charge. Pray for the familes of those lost. RIP

1 DEAD, 2 INJURED AFTER BOAT CRASHES INTO CONCRETE PIER IN FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA

MAY 30, 2015

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN)

A boat ran into a concrete pier in Fort Lauderdale Saturday night, killing one person and sending two others to the hospital, officials said.

According to investigators, two boats were traveling southbound on the Intracoastal Waterway when one of them struck the pier, which is attached to a house in the area of 38th Street and 32nd Avenue near Oakland Park Boulevard, around 8 p.m.

Authorities said 10 people were traveling on the two boats. "Upon arrival of our crews, we found that there were four individuals on this boat when it did strike the seawall. Of the four individuals one was ejected from the boat," said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Stuart Ahearn.

"Bystanders were able to remove this individual from the water, and they did start CPR. Upon our arrival, we then went up, we evaluated the individual, and unfortunately that individual did expire on scene."

Paramedics transported the injured victims to Broward General Hospital in stable condition. The fourth boater inside the vessel that crashed was not injured.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Summer in Florida, boating at night, speeding, crashing at the concrete pier:  all that point to another drunk night boat crash that resulted in tragedy.

PRELIMINARY NTSB REPORT: 4 DEAD WHEN A PIPER PA-32R-300, N5802V, COLLIDED WITH A HIGHWAY BARRIER DURING A FORCED LANDING ATTEMPT NEAR CHAMBLEE, GEORGIA. THE AIRPLANE WAS DESTROYED.

NTSB Identification: ERA15FA208 

14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation 

Accident occurred Friday, May 08, 2015 in Chamblee, GA 

Aircraft: PIPER PA-32R-300, registration: N5802V 

Injuries: 4 Fatal. 

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report. 

On May 8, 2015, about 1010 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-32R-300, N5802V, collided with a highway barrier during a forced landing attempt near Chamblee, Georgia. The commercial pilot three passengers were fatally injured and the airplane was destroyed. 

The airplane was registered to and operated by TLT and GGBB LLC. as a personal flight. Day, visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan. The flight originated from Peachtree DeKalb Airport (PDK), Chamblee, Georgia, about 1008 eastern daylight time and was destined for University-Oxford Airport (UOX), Oxford, Mississippi.
A review of the air traffic control (ATC) transcript revealed that the pilot contacted clearance delivery for an IFR clearance.  ATC provided the clearance, which included radar vectors, and "climb and maintain 3,000; expect 8,000 in 10 minutes."  

The pilot read back the clearance correctly, and confirmed that he had the most recent automatic terminal information service (ATIS), which was information "Whiskey." 

The pilot contacted ground control, and indicated that he was ready to taxi. Ground control instructed the pilot to taxi for runway 3R, via bravo, hold short 3L, and the pilot read back the instructions correctly. The pilot then contacted the tower controller informing them that he was holding short 3L and ready. 

The tower controller instructed the pilot to "fly heading 360 and cleared for takeoff." The pilot then questioned the controller regarding which runway to take off from and the controller cleared the pilot for takeoff from runway 3L. Approximately two minutes after departure the tower controller called the pilot to verify heading. 

The pilot responded "zero-two-victor, I'm having some problem climbing here." Followed by "zero-two-victor; were going down here at the intersection." This was the last transmission made by the pilot.
A witness stated that he was about 2,300 feet off the departure end of the runway. He stopped to look at the airplane because it was moving extremely slow and only 75-100 feet above ground level when it went over his head. 

He went on to say that the engine sounded normal and despite the slow speed the airplane was not "wobbling" left to right. He continued to watch the airplane as it flew out of his view.
First responders to the accident site located the airplane in the eastbound lane of interstate 285, approximately 2 miles north of PDK. There were ground scars across four traffic lanes that ended at a 5 foot concrete highway divider where the airplane came to rest. 

The airplane was found fragmented and a post-crash fire ensued. The wreckage path was on a heading of 021 degrees magnetic, at coordinates 33°54'44.12"N, 84°17'8.46"W.

///////---------------//

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- The National Transportation Safety Board has published its preliminary report about the May 8 plane crash that killed four people.

According to a witness in the NTSB report, which was released early Tuesday morning, he was about 2,300 feet from the end of the runway when he noticed the plane was moving "extremely" slow and was only about "75-100 feet above ground level when it went over his head." The witness added the engine sounded "normal and despite the slow speed, the airplane was not wobbling left to right."

About two minutes after taking off, the pilot, 53-year-old Greg Byrd of Asheville, N.C., radioed the tower controller and said, "I'm having some problem climbing here." He then said, "We're going down here at the intersection," according to the report. That was Byrd's last transmission.

The plane Byrd was flying took off from DeKalb-Peachtree Airport at around 10:10 a.m. and went down moments later near the Peachtree Industrial Boulevard interchange. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the Piper PA-32 aircraft departed Runway 3 Left at PDK, then crashed about two miles away.

The single-engine Piper PA-32 aircraft was scheduled to land just before 11 a.m., CT in Oxford, Miss., according to FlightAware. It had arrived at PDK at about 9:15 a.m., from Asheville.

Also on board the plane were Byrd's two sons, Phillip Byrd of Asheville and Christopher Byrd of Atlanta, along with Christopher's fiancee, Jackie Kulzer of Atlanta. The two Atlanta residents had boarded the plane at PDK. Also killed in the crash was a family dog.

They were on their way to the University of Mississippi's graduation ceremonies Saturday for Robert Byrd when the plane went down.

Emergency responders arrived at the scene about a minute after learning of the crash. DeKalb County Fire Capt. Eric Jackson confirmed the four deaths. No injuries were reported on the ground.

Witnesses said they saw the plane flying very close to the ground, then crash into the interstate median. They said it "exploded" and burst into flames on impact. Nobody on the ground was hurt, although the front of a large truck was brushed by the plane just before it hit the median.

"It looked like it was struggling. You could see him trying to get the nose of the plane up. It was edging up, and then it just dropped," said motorist Don McGhee, 48, who saw the aircraft nearly hit a traffic light pole near the highway on-ramp. "It was just a huge fire, just smoke and fire."

The plane had just refueled, said Eric Alleyne, an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. He will be doing a flight reconstruction and expects to release a report on the crash in six months to a year.

The small plane does not have a black box, Alleyne said, only an emergency locator transmitter that was not needed. He does not yer know whether the pilot made any radio contact before the crash.

Witnesses said they saw the plane flying very low before crashing into the median on I-285, about a mile from DeKalb Peachtree Airport. 

Truck driver Gerald Smith, who was traveling eastbound on I-285, says he slammed on his brakes, and the plane clipped his hood.

"If I would have stayed on the gas, it would have come in the passenger door," Smith said. The plane crashed into the median wall separating the east-and-westbound lanes in front of him, and not much was left of the plane after the flames were extinguished.

"It was quite remarkable, considering the amount of traffic on 285 at that time of day, it was not more tragic than it already is," DeKalb County Chief of Police Dr. Cedric Alexander said of the crash.

Representatives from Levett & Sons Funeral Home removed the victims' bodies from the scene.

DeKalb Fire and the police departments from Chamblee, Doraville and Dunwoody responded to the crash. Dr. Alexander said the National Transportation Safety Board will be involved in the investigation.

Officials from the NTSB said Friday that an investigation as to the cause of the crash could take up to a year to complete.

All lanes in both directions of I-285 were blocked at the scene for much of the day while federal aviation and transportation officials conducted their preliminary investigations. Westbound traffic resumed its normal flow by 4:30 p.m, while eastbound traffic was allowed to resume travel along the stretch of interstate by 6 p.m.