Family Calls For Accountability After Boy, 12, Killed In Police Chase In Paulding County

PAULDING COUNTY, GA — The family of Le'Den Boykins, the 12-year-old boy killed in a police chase in September, is calling for the Georgia State Patrol officers and Paulding County deputies involved in the chase to be held responsible, multiple news outlets reported.

Around 1 a.m. Sept. 10, GSP officials said they pulled a car over for speeding on Bethel Church Road in Paulding County. Charles Moore was behind the wheel, and Le'Den was the passenger, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

Le'Den's parents, Anthony and Toni Boykins, were in Michigan for a family funeral that day. His grandmother, who was staying at their home, gave Le'Den permission to earn money by going with a close friend and neighbor — which was Moore and his 14-year-old son — to his job cleaning parking lots at night, 11Alive reported.

They got pulled over on the way home, and Moore wouldn't show his driver's license. According to Fox 5 Atlanta, Moore also wouldn't roll down the window — so troopers tried to bust it open, and he sped off.

State troopers used a PIT maneuver to stop the car, which flipped the car over. An eight-minute 911 call documented the moments leading up to the PIT maneuver, in which Moore expressed a fear for his life.

"I am afraid. I'm afraid for my life," he said, according to 11Alive. "They need to get them off me, right now, because I'm scared, I've got my kids with me, right now."

According to GSP's policy on using PIT maneuvers, officers are instructed to consider whether children are in the car before using a PIT maneuver.

The Boykins said while they do believe Moore did play a role in their son's death, officers knew there were children in the car, and they should've been more cautious.

"When they decided that they were gonna do that PIT maneuver, they knew that they were gonna endanger somebody's life, and they knew there were children in the vehicle," Anthony Boykins said at a press conference Friday. "So at that point they determined that they were the judge and jury for whatever the situation was at the moment, and that shouldn't be. And the only way to stop them is to hold them accountable."

Authorities indicated that as per protocol, the troopers involved are being investigated.

Moore faces several charges including driving under the influence, open container in a motor vehicle, speeding and driving with a suspended license, Fox 5 reported.