Spending 30 days in the Fulton County Jail was life-changing for a PhD student from Clark Atlanta.
Last November, Ladavious McNair was accused of shooting a man during a road rage incident near his university.
But since he was in class at the time of the shooting, he never thought the police would arrest him.
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“I said, man, is this really going to happen?” McNair recalled.
The shooting victim gave police a description of the shooter and the car immediately after he was shot.
Police saw surveillance video of McNair’s car near the scene and believed McNair fit the description, so they named him as a possible suspect.
McNair’s professor and several students said he couldn’t have been the shooter because he was in the classroom.
Nearly a year later, the case was still unsolved and the victim saw McNair on Facebook, recognized his name from the police report and told police he was the shooter… until he saw McNair’s mugshot.
“The victim contacted my office after the first story about Ladavious McNair aired and told my staff, ‘That’s not the man and I told the detective that’s not the man,’” said McNair’s attorney Marsha Mignott .
Prosecutors still charged McNair and he served 30 days in jail.
Once the judge saw and heard all the evidence at a speedy trial hearing, the charges were dropped.
McNair said there are more innocent people in the Fulton County Jail — some waiting years for a court hearing.
He wants to help them now.
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