Five Georgia Officers Fired Following Man’s Suicide Death in Interview Room

Five Georgia police officers are out of a job after a 60-year-old man was left alone in an interview before he died by suicide. 

The Savannah Police Department said William Harvey was taken in for questioning on April 3, ABC News reports, following an aggravated assault investigation. A spokeswoman says there was no video of the man alone in the room, and that he was found unconscious with shoelace-caused injuries to his neck. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation later ruled Harvey’s death a suicide. 

The Savannah police’s professional standards unit then set out an investigation into the four officers involved, who were placed on administrative leave, leading to a corporal and a sergeant being fired after the investigation, according to the department. 

A second investigation was soon opened after the department caught wind of a group chat message about Harvey’s death, which police said “had an inappropriate meme/GIF attached.” Three more people—a sergeant, a corporal and an officer—were then fired, and their terminations were upheld after four of the five total appealed. 

“While we cannot provide justice for the Harvey family, we can ensure accountability for the policies we did not follow and the actions we did not take,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said. “I do not believe that there was malicious intent on the part of the officers involved, but the result was deadly. And for that, I believe the decision to terminate was appropriate.”