If only she had been a police officer, Hannah Payne would easily have avoided the murder charge by simply claiming she was in fear for her life.
Instead, the 21-year-old Georgia woman acted as if she were protected by Blue Privilege when she chased down a 62-year-old man whom she saw strike a tractor-trailer and continue driving on May 7.
“Get the fuck out the car! I’m going to shoot you!” she screamed at Kenneth Herring after pursuing him for a mile, then cutting him off and getting out of her car with the gun.
She then proceeded to punch and grab at him, trying to pull him out of the car.
She then shot and killed him.
“He just shot himself with my gun,” she told a 911 dispatcher, according to the Clayton News-Journal.
The family of Kenneth Herring said he was likely having a diabetic episode when he crashed into the car and was probably driving himself to the hospital.
In fact, a police officer testified that a witness told him Herring had remained on the scene for about 20 minutes before getting back into his car and driving off, looking as if he had gone into “diabetic shock.”
“I know he was having a diabetic episode because he don’t just run off the scene,” his wife, Christine Herring, told local reporters. “I knew he was trying to get to the hospital.”
But Paynes’ attorney said she was defending herself against a man whom he obviously believes had no right to defend himself.
“She had a ripped shirt, she had scratch marks on her,” Matt Tucker said. “There should be (finger) prints of his and hers on the gun.”
Tucker also claimed that Payne was driven to murder Herring because his car had struck her car but police said there is no evidence of that at all.
Tucker also said the reason she continued chasing Herring even after the 911 operator told her to remain at the initial scene was because she received “mixed communication” from the 911 operator.
Payne was released on a $100,000 bond last week, prompting protests from Herring’s family.
“She thinks she’s the police, or wants to be a police officer,” said Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson.
“She’s blocked him in and he has nothing [is unarmed], and then she shoots him.”
And this is from a guy who normally defends police officers as part of his job.
