Americus police chief Mark Scott discusses shootings at news conference

AMERICUS — Americus Police Department Chief Mark Scott discussed several issues relating to the recent shooting deaths of law enforcement officers Nicholas Smarr and Jodi Smith during a news conference Friday at the Public Safety Building on South Lee Street in Americus.

The events leading to the deaths of the two officers occurred the morning of Dec. 7.

At approximately 9:40 a.m., Smarr, an officer with the Americus Police Department, responded to a domestic dispute call at Country Club Estates apartments on South Lee Street. Smith, a Georgia Southwestern State University police officer, was close by, heard the call, and responded to provide backup.

The two officers arrived on the scene and encountered Minquel Kennedy Lembrick, 32, officials said.

According to reports, Lembrick fired on the officers, and although the officers returned fire, both were struck, suffering severe injuries before Lembrick fled the scene. Smarr succumb to his wounds Wednesday, and Smith passed away Thursday afternoon after undergoing surgery in a Macon hospital.

An intensive 27-hour manhunt ensued, which ended with Lembrick’s suicide.

“I wanted to get some of our community together today to cover a couple of topics,” Scott said at Friday’s press conference. “We have had a lot of people asking about the welfare of the officers and employees here and out at Georgia Southwestern.”

According to Scott, the department has been proactive in providing help for those who are having a hard time dealing with the loss of Officers Smarr and Smith, particularly because of the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

“We have counseling sessions that officers are being encouraged to attend,” said Scott. “We had voluntary sessions that were available, and we have some mandatory sessions that are coming up next week that all of our employees will have to go to. It will be a group debriefing type session, and then they will be able to talk to counselors to try to work through the emotions that we’ve all been feeling these past two weeks.”

Georgia Southwestern is providing similar counseling opportunities for its employees, according to Scott.

“Georgia Southwestern is in the same mode,” the APD chief said. “They have already had some counselors on hand to work with their officers. We are trying to take care of our employees, and the dispatch center is coming in to participate as well. There are a lot of public safety employees that have been affected by the events of the last two weeks. It has been very stressful, and we want to make sure that they are getting the help that they need to work through this time.

“We have also reached out to the Lembrick family to make sure that they are getting the help that they need to try to cope with their grief. There are counselors available for them should they choose to ask for it.”

According to Scott, a massive outpouring of support has been provided to the Americus Police Department from the surrounding community.

“We have had literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have made a point of trying to contact us to give us their support,” he said. “I have said it over and over, it has been amazing, the community support that we have had.”

Although most have been supportive, there have been certain people/elements within the local community and beyond that are trying to use this incident as a platform of hate, according to Scott.

“During this ordeal, people have really stepped up to be encouraging, to make sure that we know that the community is behind us,” said Scott. “However, there is always a handful that will take any opportunity to try to advance their platform, and in this time of our pain and grief, it’s been no different. We’ve had a few that have made it a point of trying to be hateful. They have used social media platforms to spew their poisonous rhetoric as much as they can.

“They have attacked individuals. They have attacked family members of the slain officers, making threats against them. They have attacked our police officers and made threats against us and our families. There have been open threats against the Lembrick family and all kinds of hateful things said about them.”

According to Scott, the hateful rhetoric does not in any way represent the mindset of the Americus Police Department nor him personally.

“I want the community to know that these hateful people do not speak for me, they do not speak for the Americus Police Department and they do not speak for the people of Americus and Sumter County,” he said emphatically. “We are working with our state and federal partners to record the things that have been said, especially the things posted on social media. We will identify who these people are, and anyone who has posted a threat against someone, they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“They cannot hide behind some silly user name that they have put up. They are not anonymous. We can and we will find out who they are, and they will be prosecuted.”

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