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Grand jury to decide if deputy to face charges for shooting man in face

A witness claims he had his hands up when he was shot.
Brandon Bohanan

PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. -- A grand jury is working to determine if a Paulding County Sheriff's deputy will face charges after fatally shooting an unarmed man in the face while serving a warrant last year.

A key witness claims that Brandon Lee Bohanan had his hands in the air when he was fatally shot by Paulding County Deputy David Martin on Oct. 5, 2017.

Deputies were serving an arrest warrant at Bohanan's mother's house in Hiram. When deputies got to the basement, they found a door that was "heavily fortified."

When officers were finally able to get through the door with a ram, they found Bohanan and another woman, Emelia Blehm, inside. They told both of them to get on the ground and show their hands. Officials said Blehm followed officers orders, but Bohanan did not, and instead became aggressive.

►RELATED: New information released in Paulding officer-involved shooting; family wants justice

"He approached the deputies in an aggressive manner," Paulding County Sheriff's spokesman, Sgt. Ashley Henson said back in October. "In the basement it was a very dark setting from what I understand and just did not comply with their commands to get down on the ground and at that point one of our deputies fired one round, striking the individual."

Henson said they were not sure whether Bohanan had a gun.

“As soon as they made entry, of course, their weapons were drawn and their weapons do have flashlights on them,” Paulding County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Ashley Henson said. “If you’ve ever been in a pitch-black room, a flashlight only illuminates what it’s pointed at.”

Deputies said the flashlight showed Bohanan moving toward them. Martin fired one shot that ultimately killed Bohanan.

Grand jurors heard the case on Wednesday and will decide if Martin will face charges.

Martin, a 10-year veteran of law enforcement, has been on administrative leave since the incident. He’s been with the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office since February of 2014 and is a member of their Warrants Division and their SWAT team.

The warrants were for probation violations stemming from a criminal trespass charge out of Paulding and a theft by deception and forgery charge out of Gwinnett.

Bohanan's family has called the shooting a "cold-blooded murder." Blehm has maintained that Bohanan was surrendering when he was shot.

Tonight at 11 on The Late Feed: More on the grand jury's decision and information about the family's lawsuit against Paulding County.

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