Atlanta Police Sergeant Charged with using Excessive Force against Walmart Customer

ATLANTA – Trevor King, a sergeant with the Atlanta Police Department (APD), has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of using excessive force against a customer at an Atlanta Walmart store.

“We work closely with APD and its dedicated officers every day to make our city safer.  This indictment, however, alleges conduct that is so far outside the bounds of an appropriate police-citizen encounter that this officer must be held accountable,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn. 

According to U.S. Attorney Horn, the indictment, and other public information:  In 2014, APD Sgt. Trevor King was working off-duty as a security officer at the Walmart store located on Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard in downtown Atlanta.  On the evening of October 13, 2014, King, dressed in his APD uniform, and carrying an expandable baton, stopped a customer from exiting the store because he wrongfully believed the customer had shoplifted.  King allegedly grabbed the customer’s shirt and began to strike the man with his baton.  King struck the customer multiple times, breaking the customer’s leg. 

Trevor King, 48, of Rex, Georgia, is expected to be arraigned on these charges in federal court within the next week.

Members of the public are reminded that the indictment only contains charges.  The defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Alan Gray and DOJ Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Sanjay Patel are prosecuting the case.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the home page for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.