Black And Unarmed

“I’ll never forget his face,” Owens said. “I could see his eyes, that he was placed in a situation where he didn’t know how to act, just to get the hell out of the way, and get his dog out of the way. He had nowhere to go. The car was headed directly at him.”

Owens said the shooting is “kind of like a fog. . . . I think I shot three times.”

Another customer, Brittney Eustache, 26, disputed parts of that account. In a videotaped interview with detectives the day after the shooting, Eustache said police opened fire after the Maserati crashed into a curb.

“Cops were everywhere,” Eustache said. “They say, ‘Sir, step out your car.’ They say it twice, he doesn’t get out of the car. Then they open fire.”

By that point, Thomas had already been wounded, according to Owens’s attorney, Lance LoRusso. What Eustache saw, he said, were bean bags shot to break the Maserati’s tinted windows and to force Thomas out of the car.

Thomas left behind a baby daughter. His parents have notified Smyrna officials that they plan to file a wrongful-death lawsuit. Huey Thomas said he is grateful for the Justice Department review.

“I don’t think they would have taken it,” he said, “if not for Ferguson and the other cases that are happening.”

The Smyrna police chief said he, too, welcomes the federal investigation.

“If they find something that my officer has done wrong,” Lee said, “I will act accordingly.”

Alexander reported from Smyrna, Ga. Kimberly Kindy, Julie Tate, Jennifer Jenkins and Steven Rich contributed to this report.