‘Should Never Have Been Killed’: Georgia Cop Avoids Prison for Shooting Sleeping Black Man After Illegal Home Entry, May Walk Away with Sealed Conviction
A Georgia cop who entered a Black man’s home without a warrant, shooting and killing the unarmed man in his bed after startling him awake, […] ‘Should Never Have Been Killed’: Georgia Cop Avoids Prison for Shooting Sleeping Black Man After Illegal Home Entry, May Walk Away with Sealed Conviction
Black News 
A Georgia cop who entered a Black man’s home without a warrant, shooting and killing the unarmed man in his bed after startling him awake, was spared prison time by a judge last month.
Former DeKalb police officer Russell Mathis will also be eligible to have his conviction sealed under Georgia’s First Offender Act if he successfully completes his 10-year sentence, after pleading guilty under an Alford plea in the 2022 killing of 37-year-old Marando Salmon inside his Stone Mountain home.
Mathis was sentenced to two years of house arrest, followed by eight years of probation after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter on February 11. He was also ordered to pay $4,700 to Salmon’s family for funeral expenses, but he will not be required to wear an ankle monitor while on house arrest.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit against Mathis and the other cop who entered Salmon’s home remains pending.
The shooting was captured by police body cameras, but the videos have not been released despite Salmon’s family demanding so.
Atlanta Black Star reached out to the family attorney for a copy of the video and was referred to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office denied our request on the basis that the “case is open and further prosecutorial activity is pending and imminent.” We will continue asking for the video to publish for our readers.
The Shooting
The shooting took place at 11 p.m. on Nov. 4, 2022, after DeKalb police officers Mathis and Jordan Vance drove to Salmon’s home in response to a call of a stolen car on his property.
The car was alleged to have been stolen from a dealership after a man named Marc Marando took it for a test drive on Aug. 24, 2022, and never returned it, according to the pending lawsuit.
Police said the stolen car was parked in the driveway of Salmon’s two-story home so they knocked on his front door, which they claim swung open, allowing them to enter the home.
The two cops searched the first floor before making their way upstairs, where Salmon was sleeping in his bedroom.
The claim states that Mathis opened the door to the bedroom without announcing himself, waking the Black man up, firing six rounds, striking Salmon four times, and killing him.
Police initially claimed that Mathis was in fear for his life because Salmon was reaching for a gun, but that turned out to be a lie.
Police then said that Salmon threw a knife at Mathis, but that also turned out to be a lie.
It was not until more than a year later — after a grand jury indicted the two DeKalb County police officers — that the public learned the object was a phone.
But even then, police tried to justify the shooting by saying they found a gun in the room. However, the gun, which was holstered and away from Salmon, was legally owned by the Black man.
Both Mathis and Vance also tried to justify the shooting to internal affairs by claiming they entered the home without a warrant because they were acting under “exigent circumstances,” which they said was allowed under departmental policy.
But internal affairs investigators determined the shooting was not justified based on their claims of exigent circumstances.
DeKalb County police policy states that “warrantless searches are permitted . . . where speed is essential to the accomplishment of lawful police action,” according to the pending lawsuit.
But the courts define exigent circumstances as “circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to believe that entry (or other relevant prompt action) was necessary to prevent physical harm to the officers or other persons, the destruction of relevant evidence, the escape of the suspect, or some other consequence improperly frustrating legitimate law enforcement efforts.”
The fact that Salmon was sound asleep and the car in question was allegedly stolen weeks earlier made it much more difficult for Mathis to claim exigent circumstances.
“Contrary to DeKalb’s written policy, the Fourth Amendment does not permit officers to enter a home to perform a search or seizure, without a warrant and without consent, just because ‘speed is essential to the accomplishment of lawful police action,’” the claim states.
The Indictment
Mathis resigned from the DeKalb County Police Department in May 2023 and was indicted by a grand jury in February 2024, along with Vance.
Mathis was indicted on charges of felony involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor reckless conduct, according to a press release from the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
And Vance, who entered the home but did not open fire, was indicted on reckless conduct.
“As they cleared the house, Officer Mathis opened the door of a second-floor bedroom and encountered Salmon sitting on his bed in the dark room,” the press release stated.
“In a matter of seconds, Officer Mathis opened fire, shooting and killing Salmon. Salmon had thrown a cellphone at Officer Mathis, which Mathis believed was a knife.”
But those charges were dismissed in April 2025 after defense attorneys raised concerns about a legal technicality, mainly that “prosecutors had used the same internal affairs witness in front of the grand jury and during one of the officers’ immunity hearings, which isn’t allowed,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last year.
The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office re-indicted Mathis in September 2025 on the same charges while choosing not to indict Vance, the district attorney’s office announced.
Earlier this month, Mathis entered an Alford plea, allowing him to maintain his innocence while pleading guilty, which is a plea that usually results in a lighter sentence if convicted compared to if he had pleaded innocent.
But it is still not clear if the car in the driveway was stolen because Salmon’s sister told local media her brother had rented a car since his truck was in the shop.
“Marando was a loving father, brother, and son with a big heart who was always willing to help others,” his mother, Audrey Salmon, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2024.
“He should never have been killed by the police in his own home. No family should have to experience this pain.”
