A woman faces jurors in Clayton County, Georgia, as she stands charged with shooting and killing a man as part of her failed citizen’s arrest. Hannah Payne, 24, faces two counts of felony murder, three counts of possession of a weapon during a crime, and a count each of malice murder, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment. You can watch it in the player above.
Authorities have said that the alleged victim, Kenneth Herring, 62, had driven through a red light in his Dodge Dakota pickup truck, causing a minor crash with a semi on May 7, 2019. Testimony at a hearing stated that he stayed for 15 to 20 minutes.
A witness — a state corrections officer with medic training — saw the crash, and spoke to Herring, a detective told the court. Based on his training, this witness suggested that Herring was having a medical emergency — a diabetic shock or something of that nature. For example, Herring was disoriented, displayed red-orange eyes, and had walked around a truck several times.
“He was asking, ‘What happened? Who hit me? What’s going on?”‘ Detective Keon Hayward.
Hannah Payne shot and killed Kenneth Herring on May 7, 2019, authorities said. (Screenshot: Law&Crime Network)
Herring drove off after the witness advised him to sit back in his truck, according to testimony. This witness asked Payne, who had witnessed the crash, to get the fleeing vehicle’s tag. Payne called 911 and followed Herring in her car, caught up, and blocked him in with her Jeep even though the 911 operator told her to stay away because it was safer.
“He is drunk. I’m not,” Payne told dispatch before the fatal confrontation. “I’m sorry, but I’m here to tell you I’m not not going to follow him because he is going to cause an accident.”
That altercation, however, turned deadly. Payne told dispatch that the man pulled the trigger of her gun while it was in her hand.
“Ma’am, he just pulled the trigger of my gun in my hand,” Payne said on audio.
“Ma’am, you were not supposed to follow him,” said the dispatcher.
Authorities found no drugs or alcohol in Herring’s system. His wife has suggested he was suffering from a diabetic emergency and was driving to the hospital.
Payne’s defense lawyer, Matthew Tucker, maintained she saw herself as a good Samaritan trying to help in apprehending a hit-and-run driver.
“She’s using deadly force; she wasn’t faced with deadly force,” Tracy Graham Lawson, then-district attorney of Clayton County, said in 2019. “You cannot claim self-defense and use deadly force unless you’re not the initial aggressor — she is.”
Georgia repealed its citizen’s arrest law last year after three men murdered Ahmaud Arbery.
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