Family says APD officer pulled gun, yelled racial slurs at them during road rage incident

WSBTV.com News Staff
·3 min read
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A former Atlanta police officer is facing felony charges after he pulled a gun on a family during a reported road rage incident in southeast Atlanta.

Malone was arrested and charged with multiple felony charges, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and first-degree cruelty to children.

He was booked into jail on June 28 and released the next day, according to jail records. A spokesperson for Atlanta pPolice says Malone submitted his resignation on July 12 after nearly 13 years of service.

The felony charges stem from a reported road rage incident on May 5. On Thursday,

Channel 2′s Michael Seiden was in Reynoldstown Thursday, where he talked to victims Courtney Harris and Quinton Rogers. The couple and their children had just finished a fun day riding scooters on the BeltLine and were headed home when they had what they said was a terrifying encounter with the officer.

Harris said her family is still traumatized by the incident.

Harris said she and her boyfriend Quinton Rogers, along with three of their children, told Channel 2 that they were stopped at a red light, preparing to turn onto Memorial Drive in se Atlanta but when the light turned green, the vehicle in front of them did not move.

“The Camaro was stopped, so we eased around it,” Courtney Harris said. “We got onto Memorial and that’s when the man started blaring his horn.”

That’s when Harris said Malone flew into a rage.

“He was cussing at us and sounding his horn,” Rogers said.

Harris says when she looked back at the Camaro, she saw the driver pointing a gun at her and her family.

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“I see him pointing a gun through the window and I’m like, ‘Really? My kids are in the car! My kids are in the car!’” Harris said. “And he’s like, ‘I don’t care. I don’t give an F.’ Calling us the N-word.”

With traffic at a standstill, Harris and Rogers stopped their vehicle and confronted Malone.

“I see a badge on his shoulder and it says ‘Atlanta Police,’” she said. “It was just shocking . How could you be doing this?”

Harris says she flagged down another APD officer who was in the area, working an accident. She says Malone denied the allegations and then sped away from the scene.

Harris said she doesn’t think someone like Harris should be working for a police department.

“I don’t’ feel he should walk around with a badge,” Harris said. “There’s no reason he should be able to walk around with a gun.”

“My kids now talking about how they don’t like police officers anymore,” she said “I have to explain to them that not all police officers are bad. We go through enough just because the color of our skin. Someone like this should not be working for y’all.”

Malone’s attorney released the following statement to Channel 2 Action News just before 10 p.m.:

“Prior to the reporting, I was neither contacted nor aware that this story was being run.

However, having now seen the interview, I can state with certainty that Ms. Harris and Mr. Rogers gave an inaccurate account which contradicts what they told police back in May.

Moreover, Ms. Harris and Mr. Rogers were the ones with road rage. After they illegally drove around Officer Malone at an intersection and almost collided with his vehicle. Both Ms. Harris and Mr. Rogers got out of their vehicle, and approached Officer Malone’s vehicle. They became aggressive, and repeatedly threatened him. Once they realized Mr. Malone was a police officer, they changed their demeanor and came up with these false accusations.

Their inability to tell the same story twice demonstrates that their account is a fabrication.

Unlike their story, the truth does not change, and we look forward to the truth coming out in court.”

-Brian Tevis, Tevis Law Firm, LLC

Channel 2 Action News reached out to Malone’s father by using the contact info listed on court documents. We also tried several listed numbers for Robert Malone, but we were unsuccessful in contacting him.