Willie Countryman

On May 25, 1958, at about 1:30 a.m., Dawson Police Department (DPD) Officers Weyman Cherry and Robert Hancock, the subjects, entered the yard of Willie Countryman, the African-American victim, reportedly to investigate a suspicious noise.  The subjects claimed that the victim jumped from behind a tree and cut Cherry’s cap with a knife, whereupon Cherry broke free and shot the victim.  Countryman sustained a gunshot wound to the stomach and was transported to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.