The family of a man shot and killed by a former Georgia State Patrol trooper nearly six years ago has settled an excessive force lawsuit for $6.6 million.
The agreement includes a $5.5 million payment by the state of Georgia, the largest settlement reached with the state government in at least 15 years, records show.
Andrew “A.J.” Smyrna, a 32-year-old father of two, was killed Jan. 23, 2020, when a trooper opened fire on the convertible he was driving in Atlanta’s Edgewood neighborhood.
Attorneys for the Ellenwood man’s family said former state trooper Brandon Byrd fired nine times, striking Smyrna and another man who were seated inside the rented Chevrolet Camaro.
Atlanta police requested the GSP’s help after spotting the parked convertible along Leslie Street near Moreland Avenue around midday, the GBI said at the time. Authorities said the car had been stolen.
Investigators said Smyrna drove toward Byrd, prompting the trooper to open fire. But Smyrna’s family said he was trying to drive away, contending in the complaint that the patrolman was never in danger of being struck by the car.
“Trooper Byrd opened his driver’s side door, jumped out of his patrol vehicle ... and within seconds began firing his weapon directly into the Camaro,” Smyrna’s family said in their lawsuit.
The first two shots were fired into the Camaro’s windshield, the lawsuit alleged. The next seven were fired into the back of the Camaro as it sped away, according to the man’s family.
The car later came to a stop after slamming into trash cans, a brick mailbox and a pickup truck parked on the side of the road, according to the lawsuit. Smyrna, who was pulled from the car and handcuffed on the street, bled out and died in the road, his family alleged.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
The settlement amount was announced Wednesday after months of negotiations. Case records show both Hertz and the National Insurance Crime Bureau settled the family’s claims against them for $550,000 each. Attorneys for Smyrna’s family said the rental car company “routinely relied on NICB’s assistance to recover and protect its rental fleet against fraud and theft.”
Since Byrd was a state employee at the time, he was represented in the civil case by attorneys from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office, which declined to comment on the settlement.
It’s unclear how long Smyrna had been driving the Camaro, which appeared to have a Maryland tag. His family’s lawsuit said the rental contract was good through Jan. 31 and that Hertz didn’t formally report the vehicle stolen until after his death.
In 2021, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston declined to pursue charges against the trooper after watching body camera footage of the police shooting.
“It was a very difficult decision,” Boston told Channel 2 Action News at the time. “The key factor in this case was whether the vehicle driven by Mr. Smyrna could be used as an offensive weapon against the police officer. Absolutely, that car was in a position to hit, hurt and possibly kill Trooper Byrd.
“This was a split-second decision that Trooper Byrd had to make.”
The $5.5 million settlement with the state is larger than any previous settlement by Georgia since at least 2010, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution review of records kept by the state’s risk management office.
The data reviewed by the AJC was updated in early August, just days before the filing of the settlement agreement with Smyrna’s heirs in federal court. The data roughly covers the period in which the state has kept electronic records of its settlements, claims and indemnities.
The previous largest state settlement on record was $5 million paid to the family of Thomas Henry Giles, a state prison inmate who died in 2020 after being left for hours in a smoke-filled cell.
A federal grand jury recently indicted two former Augusta State Medical Prison correctional officers over their alleged roles in Giles’ death.
Large settlements are often paid partly by the state and partly by one of its insurers. Giles’ settlement involved a $3 million check from the state and an additional $2 million from Lexington Insurance.
The steady increase in recent years in payouts by the state government was cited as one of the reasons behind a push for civil litigation limitations in the most recent legislative session.
In 2022, the family of Julian E. Lewis, who was shot and killed by a Georgia state trooper after a chase that began over an alleged broken taillight, was awarded a $4.8 million settlement.
In August 2020, former trooper Jacob Gordon Thompson tried to pull over Lewis in Screven County. After a brief chase, Thompson used a PIT maneuver to stop the Nissan Sentra, according to investigators. Thompson then shot Lewis in the head, killing the 60-year-old.
Thompson, who was fired, was later arrested and charged with murder after the GBI said he gave inconsistent statements regarding events leading up to the shooting. Those charges were dropped after a grand jury declined to indict the ex-trooper.
Records filed in federal court in Atlanta detailing the state settlement with Smyrna’s heirs do not spell out how much, if any, of the $5.5 million amount will be borne by insurance.
Byrd was terminated by the state patrol in 2023, according to records from the state’s police oversight agency. He has since served with the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office, and starting this past summer, he began a position as an investigator with the DeKalb County solicitor general’s office.
About the Authors
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
