Details thin in case of Georgia man dead after being Tased by police

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — It’s been nearly a month since 58-year-old Euree Lee Martin walked more than 15 miles from one Georgia city to another, where he was Tased by deputies with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, then collapsed and died. 

Details surrounding the incident remain under wraps as the investigation continues, but Martin’s death has sparked outcries for justice from officials with the NAACP, who are calling for the local district attorney to recuse himself from the case, citing his cordial working relationship with the sheriff’s office in question.

Martin, who was known to walk the considerable distance from his home in Milledgeville to the city of Deepstep, Georgia, to visit family members, reportedly did that same thing Friday, July 7.

Shortly before 7:30 p.m., a Deepstep resident identifying himself as Cyrus Harris called a dispatcher with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office to report a suspicious person, according to a copy of the incident report from the call.

Deputy Michael Howell responded to the area, where he saw Martin walking on the right side of the road. 

“I pulled alongside the black male with my passenger window down and asked the male subject, ‘Are you OK, and what’s your name.’ And he looked at me and asked, ‘Who are you,’ and he walked off walking toward Sandersville,” Deputy Howell said in the report. 

Nothing further was mentioned by the deputy in his incident report about what led to deputies deploying their department-issued Tasers on Martin. 

Martin’s family buried him July 14. 

As of Thursday, the official cause of Martin’s death still had not been disclosed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Scott Whitley, special agent in-charge of the GBI Region 12 Office, told The Milledgeville Union-Recorder that he was still awaiting the cause of death from the medical examiner. 

Residents in Georgia’s Washington and Baldwin counties — where members of Martin’s family and friends live — have rallied, at two large town hall meetings, the latest of which took place at a community center in Sandersville just a week ago. The meetings have drawn hundreds of people.

Quentin T. Howell, a Milledgeville resident who serves as communications director for the Washington County NAACP Branch, and is of no relation to Deputy Howell, said the civil rights group has requested that Middle Judicial Circuit District Attorney Hayward Altman recuse himself from reviewing the case file once the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has concluded its investigation surrounding Martin’s death.

“One of the first steps that we believe needs to be done, and this is no disrespect to the district attorney of Washington County, but because the district attorney and the sheriff’s office have a cordial working and professional relationship already established, we feel as a Washington County community, we would feel more supportive of this investigation if the district attorney would recuse himself, be replaced by a district attorney with no ties to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office,” Howell said.

The NAACP is asking that a special prosecutor be appointed to review the case once the GBI has finished its investigation.

“What that would do is give credibility to this investigation that’s not there now,” Howell said. “There are a tremendous number of people that feel that this investigation is going to allow these officers — be it they were wrong or right — to go scott-free.”

As of Friday afternoon, Altman had not returned phone calls seeking comment about the NAACP’s request.

Howell described the call reporting Martin as racial profiling.

“They were called by a white person who thought this black man was up to something no good when all he was doing was walking up the road,” Howell said. “Mr. Martin was merely doing what he did on a regular basis and that was walking from one county to another, checking on his family and checking on his friends.”

The NAACP wants the 911 call to be released to the public, as well as the dash camera and body camera recordings from the scene.

Hobbs writes for the Millidgeville, Georgia, Union-Recorder. Reporter Will Woolever contributed to this report.