Why did Kathryn Johnston die and where is our Mayor?

At 4 a.m. Saturday morning, New York police shot and killed Sean Bell and wounded two of his friends.

We know how many shots police fired (50).

We know that the officers involved likely violated police policy, first by firing into a moving vehicle, secondly by firing 50 shots.

We know that NY city officials recognize that shooting three unarmed men is not what police are supposed to do. We know this because NY’s mayor today stood at a podium and called the men victims.

Last Tuesday afternoon, 88 year-old Kathryn Johnston was shot and killed by Atlanta police during a drug raid on her home.

We still don’t know why police raided Ms. Johnston’s home.

At first, police claimed said that “undercover officers” bought drugs from the home. Sometime over the weekend, “undercover officers” became “confidential informant.”

There’s a big difference. An undercover officer is a trained professional. A confidential informant is quite possibly a crackhead.

Today, APD Chief Pennington informs us that the “informant” has since denied buying drugs from the house and in fact now claims that police have asked him to lie.

Ms. Johnston’s autopsy report has not been released. Even though the autopsy took place last week, it was only this afternoon that the public was informed how many times she’s been shot.

For the past week, Chief Pennington has been mostly silent. He says that he was out of town last week for Thanksgiving and, according to the AJC, “unable” to get a flight back to Atlanta. The AJC did not report where Chief Pennington was or if flights to-and-from were in fact available.

Mayor Franklin has been entirely silent. To the best of my knowledge, she has not uttered a word about Ms. Johnston’s killing. Where is she?

The absence of city leaders has meant that news about Ms. Johnston’s death has been largely dictated by announcements and leaks from the APD -- announcements and leaks that have been incomplete and inaccurate.

City residents deserve to know what happened to Ms. Johnston and why. The Mayor needs to stand in front of a microphone and tell Atlanta everything the city knows.

Let the public see Ms. Johnston’s autopsy report.

Tell us definitively who, if anyone, bought drugs from her home?

Tell us how exactly her address ended up on the search warrant. Did the informant provide an street name and number, or simply a description of a house? Did the informant point at the house in the presence of an officer? How exactly was the information delivered.

Not for a moment do I believe that police went out last Tuesday intending to shoot Ms. Johnston. This was almost certainly a tragic mistake.

Nevertheless, it’s obvious that the APD has not been forthright with the public. Mayor Franklin needs to emerge from wherever it is that she’s been hiding for the past week and lead the city through this mess.

UPDATE: It turns out the Mayor has actually spoken. She issued a statement indicating that she's not going to speak about the shooting or the investigation. She did, however, stand in front of a podium to discuss an affordable housing initiative.