Dorsey Family Seeks $75 Million as DA Reveals Shooting Timeline

The family of 18-year-old Zadarious Dorsey is seeking $75 million from the City of Newnan following his October 3 death at the hands of a Newnan police officer, while newly released evidence from the Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office provides the most detailed account yet of the seconds surrounding the fatal shooting.

Attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels filed an ante litem notice with the city November 5, alleging that the officer unlawfully pursued Dorsey and used excessive force. The notice is a formal step toward a potential civil lawsuit, not a lawsuit itself.

On November 6, District Attorney Herb Cranford released a detailed timeline, descriptions of body camera images, new evidence connecting Dorsey to a handgun found at the scene, and preliminary findings about the six gunshot wounds he sustained.

The developments bring new information to a case that has divided the young man’s family and law enforcement officials over whether Dorsey posed an immediate threat when the officer fired.

$75 million wrongful-death claim

The legal notice, submitted by the law firms of Ben Crump and Harry Daniels, seeks $75 million for wrongful death, pain and suffering, mental and emotional suffering, and other recoverable damages.

The attorneys allege that the officer had no reasonable suspicion or probable cause to detain Dorsey when he began pursuing him. They also identify potential federal civil rights claims, including excessive force under the Fourth Amendment.

“The video clearly shows that the officer had no reason to believe that Zadarious ever had a gun. But he chased him anyway,” Daniels said in a November 6 statement.

The family’s attorneys argue that Dorsey had the legal right to flee what they characterize as an unlawful detention.

“Zadarious had the legal right to run from a man with a gun even if that man also had a badge. That’s what he did and this officer killed him for it,” Daniels said.

The notice gives the City of Newnan a 30-day opportunity to address the claim before the attorneys pursue further legal action.

During a November 6 news conference, the attorneys disputed the GBI’s preliminary account of the shooting and called for criminal charges against the officer.

Their position differs from the GBI’s preliminary account, which said Dorsey pulled a gun from his waistband during the foot chase and was shot after ignoring commands to stop and drop the weapon.

Whether the officer had legal grounds to detain Dorsey, and whether his use of deadly force was justified, remain separate questions under investigation.

Six shots fired one second after warning

The district attorney’s new timeline begins at 1:10:44 a.m. October 3, when a Ford Taurus carrying Dorsey turned onto Cliff Circle from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

A Newnan police officer in an unmarked vehicle arrived 16 seconds later.

The officer approached the vehicle, and its occupants began leaving. The officer called out to Dorsey by his nickname, Dae Dae, well before the chase began.

At 1:12:54 a.m., the officer ordered Dorsey to stop, and Dorsey fled on foot.

The officer activated his body-worn camera at 1:13:10 a.m., after the initial encounter and pursuit had begun.

At 1:13:30 a.m., the officer again called out, “Stop Dae Dae.”

Ten seconds later, the officer deployed his Taser.

The timeline records the officer ordering Dorsey to “DROP THE GUN, DROP THE GUN” at 1:13:45 a.m.

At 1:13:46 a.m., the officer fired six shots.

Two seconds later, according to the district attorney’s timeline, Dorsey said, “I dropped it yo.”

Those words are significant because the central dispute is whether Dorsey was still holding a firearm, had already discarded it, or was otherwise threatening the officer when the shots were fired.

The timeline establishes the sequence of those statements and the gunfire but does not independently resolve when Dorsey released the weapon.

Body camera frames show possible gun, but final moment remains unclear

Cranford’s office also released 211 slides containing 180 consecutive frames from the six seconds immediately before and including the first gunshot.

The officer’s body camera recorded 30 frames per second.

According to the district attorney, frames 103 and 105 depict an object in Dorsey’s right hand consistent with the appearance of a firearm.

Frames 123 through 130 show the officer pointing his firearm at Dorsey.

Frame 163, immediately before the first shot, shows Dorsey apparently turning his right shoulder back toward the officer. Cranford’s statement specifically acknowledges that it is unclear whether Dorsey has anything in his right hand in that frame.

Frame 164 shows the muzzle flash of the officer’s first gunshot.

That distinction leaves a critical question unanswered. The new images provide evidence that Dorsey may have possessed the gun during the chase, but the district attorney has not established that the gun remained in his hand at the instant deadly force was used.

In an October 26 interview with The Citizen, Newnan Mayor James Shepherd, who had reviewed the footage with prosecutors, offered a similar assessment.

“The video is not conclusive,” Shepherd said.

Shepherd said he could not determine from the recording whether Dorsey pulled the weapon, pointed it toward the officer, or threw it away.

New Instagram evidence connects Dorsey to recovered firearm

Another development concerns the Canik 9mm handgun recovered approximately 42 feet diagonally ahead and to the right of where Dorsey fell.

Cranford previously reported that GBI forensic testing identified Dorsey’s DNA on the firearm. The gun had been reported stolen in Albany, Georgia, in 2020.

On October 28, investigators obtained records from Meta associated with Dorsey’s Instagram account.

According to the November 6 statement, those records included a photograph of four firearms sent to Dorsey’s account September 26, approximately one week before his death.

One of the guns in the photograph distinctly matches the appearance of the weapon recovered after the shooting, Cranford said.

Investigators traced the photograph to an Instagram account associated with another occupant of the Ford Taurus. That man acknowledged to GBI investigators that he had been riding in the rear of the car with Dorsey before the shooting.

The district attorney has not publicly identified him.

The photograph and DNA findings strengthen the evidence connecting Dorsey to the recovered handgun. They do not establish precisely when he possessed it during the pursuit or how it came to rest 42 feet beyond the location where he fell.

Autopsy photographs establish wound locations

The GBI Medical Examiner’s Office has informed prosecutors that Dorsey sustained six gunshot wounds.

The district attorney released four cropped and censored autopsy photographs showing one wound to Dorsey’s right chest that exited through his back, one wound to his right hip, and four wounds to his legs.

According to Cranford, the chest wound is consistent with having been caused by the first shot, shown in body camera frame 164.

The location of that wound is particularly relevant because the family’s attorneys have publicly described Dorsey as having been shot in the back.

At Friday’s news conference, Crump characterized the shooting as six shots in Dorsey’s back, according to CBS News Atlanta. The medical examiner’s preliminary findings, as described by Cranford, instead identify one bullet entering the right chest and exiting through the back, along with the hip and leg wounds.

The complete autopsy report remains unfinished, and prosecutors have not yet released its full findings.

Dorsey repeatedly asked to go to the hospital

The newly released timeline also provides additional information about what happened after Dorsey was shot.

At 1:13:57 a.m., approximately 11 seconds after the gunfire, Dorsey asked to be taken to the hospital.

He repeated that request several times.

At 1:14:15 a.m., the officer secured Dorsey’s handcuffs. The officer requested emergency medical services at 1:14:18 a.m.

At 1:15:20 a.m., the timeline records Dorsey saying, “Hey I’m fixin to die, I’m fixin to die bro.”

Officers subsequently applied medical supplies, including a tourniquet, and removed Dorsey’s handcuffs at 1:17:17 a.m.

At 1:20:15 a.m., an officer reported that Dorsey had no pulse. CPR began at approximately 1:20:22 a.m.

Emergency medical personnel arrived at the scene at 1:27:43 a.m., approximately 14 minutes after the shooting. The timeline also indicates that an air ambulance was requested but declined because of weather conditions.

During an October 9 protest outside the Newnan Police Department, Dorsey’s aunt Christy White described hearing her nephew ask the officer why he had shot him.

The district attorney’s newly released timeline instead records Dorsey saying he had dropped the gun immediately after the shooting. It does not include the question White reported hearing, although that absence does not establish that he never said it.

The complete audio recording has not yet been publicly released.

Officer knew Dorsey from previous encounters

As The Citizen reported October 26, the officer who shot Dorsey had participated in previous police encounters involving him.

Those included arrests in May 2024 and October 2025 involving allegations of unlawful firearm possession and an August 2023 incident in which Dorsey was removed and trespassed from Newnan High School.

The October 2025 arrest, documented in police records obtained by The Citizen, also followed a foot chase in which officers reported recovering a firearm from Dorsey, then 17.

The officer’s repeated use of Dorsey’s nickname during the October 3 encounter establishes that he recognized the teenager.

It remains unclear whether that familiarity influenced his decision to pursue Dorsey rather than the other occupants of the vehicle.

Two separate legal questions

In his October 26 statement, Cranford distinguished the legality of the officer’s initial attempt to detain Dorsey from the separate question of whether deadly force was justified.

The district attorney said his office had not determined whether the officer possessed reasonable, articulable suspicion of a crime when he ordered Dorsey to stop.

Cranford explained that his criminal charging decision ultimately depends on whether prosecutors can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer was unreasonable in believing deadly force was necessary to protect himself from death or great bodily injury.

The attorneys representing Dorsey’s family are pursuing a civil claim under a different legal process, including allegations involving the pursuit and the officer’s use of force.

No criminal charging decision against the officer has been announced.

Full body camera footage still to be released

Cranford’s office said it has contracted with a professional videographer to prepare the officer’s approximately 43-minute body camera recording for public release.

The recording will include the full audio but will be edited to avoid showing Dorsey’s suffering, consistent with the family’s wishes.

The district attorney presented the latest evidence to Dorsey’s paternal relatives November 3 and to the family’s civil attorneys November 6.

The GBI investigation and the medical examiner’s final autopsy report remain pending.

More than a month after the shooting, prosecutors have documented six gunshots, a handgun linked to Dorsey through DNA and Instagram records, and an officer who knew him from previous encounters.

But the most consequential question remains unresolved: what the officer could reasonably see and believe about Dorsey’s actions at the precise moment he fired?

The answer will determine the next stage of the criminal investigation, even as the family prepares to pursue its $75 million civil claim.