Federal grand jury considers criminal charges in fatal Hancock shooting, authorities say
A federal grand jury is investigating the Dec. 10, 2022, shooting death of a Florida college student in an encounter with three Hancock County sheriff’s deputies, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.
The Sun Herald was at the federal courthouse Wednesday when two deputies, Lt. Christopher Dunn Sholar and Deputy Laura (Lauralyn) Yager, were there to testify.
Yager arrived in a Hancock County Sheriff’s Department’s SUV, while Sholar showed up in a silver SUV.
Sholar, Yager and former Hancock County K-9 Deputy Michael Chase Blackwell are the three deputies involved in the shooting that resulted in the death of Isaiah Winkley, the 21-year-old son of a Georgia pastor and his wife.
Blackwell, 28, is the admitted shooter and the alleged target of a state and federal investigation into possible wrongdoing.
A grand jury of randomly picked residents hears the evidence to determine if a crime occurred.
In this case, authorities confirmed the evidence is going before a state and federal grand jury. The state grand jury has not yet convened.
The Department of Justice would not confirm or deny information about the grand jury probe. U.S. Attorney Todd Gee also declined to comment.
Winkley’s parents, the Rev. Dwight Winkley and his wife, Catherine, of Morehead, Georgia, believe their son was the victim of wrongdoing by deputies and accuse those involved of negligence, malfeasance and reckless conduct that resulted in the killing.
Attorney Lance Stevens represents Winkley’s parents in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in federal court in Gulfport. The couple is suing Blackwell, the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Ricky Adam, and other unnamed defendants.
Since then, Blackwell filed an affidavit defending his actions the day of the shooting, saying he feared for his life and the lives of the two other deputies when he fired four rounds at Winkley.
Winkley’s autopsy showed he had been shot five times.
In the affidavit, Blackwell said he fired at Winkley from over 8 feet away because he was walking toward him with a metal T-post used for fencing and screaming, “Shoot me.”
Blackwell said he wasn’t sure if Winkley had managed to get his hands on a gun.
Winkley did not have a gun, and Blackwell didn’t unleash his police K-9, a German Shepherd named Dark, to try to capture Winkley. Instead, the K-9 was tied to a 30-foot tracking line.
Blackwell said he kept his K-9 tied up instead of using the dog to try to take Winkely into custody because his police training taught him not to send the K-9 into a “deadly force” encounter.
In addition, he said deputies had already used a Taser on Winkley several times, and Winkley still managed to get back up.
In the civil action, Blackwell submitted a copy of police camera footage of the shooting to federal court. He asked a federal magistrate to seal the footage to protect the privacy of Winkley and his family, but the family wants the footage made public.
This week, Blackwell filed a motion saying there no longer appears to be an objection to releasing the footage. The Sun Herald contacted Blackwell’s attorney for comment but did not hear back.
Since then, Stevens said attorneys for Blackwell turned over copies of the footage but said he had to agree to wait to release it until a judge rules on whether to restrict it from public access.
“It’s absolutely horrible,” Stevens said. “The family wants justice, whatever that may entail.”
Sun Herald’s attorney, Henry Laird, filed a motion to intervene in the federal suit to argue against restricting public access to the footage.
A judge has not yet ruled on the matter.
This story was originally published December 1, 2023 at 12:28 PM.
