‘What the Hell Does She Want Us to Do About It?’: Atlanta Police Told Black Mother ‘They Don’t Have the Resources’ to Investigate Death of Her Daughter Killed In Hit-and-Run Crash
Brittany Glover, a 33-year-old Black woman, had just moved to Atlanta for a new job as a flight attendant when she was killed by a hit-and-run driver three years ago.
But despite dozens of potential witnesses in the area, including at least two Atlanta cops, police have made no attempt to investigate the case, said her mother, Valerie Handy-Carey, who has been fighting for justice for her daughter ever since.
All she knows is that a witness told her it was possibly a red jeep that struck her daughter that ended up with a shattered windshield.
But the Atlanta police officer who responded to the scene told her that it was possibly a green jeep or a white sedan but he also told her they did not have the resources to investigate further.
And when she asked police about the security cameras on the light posts along the street that would likely have recorded the hit-and-run, police said those cameras only record in real time and do not have the ability to preserve recordings – defeating the purpose of having those cameras there in the first place.
“For all I know, it could have been an Atlanta police officer that ran over my daughter as to why they’re not trying to solve her case,” Handy-Carey said in an exclusive interview with Atlanta Black Star.
“Or the person that killed her has already killed somebody before or has the opportunity to kill again because they haven’t done anything to arrest them.”
Police Refuse to Help
The incident took place on Sept. 19, 2022, at around 2:30 a.m. after Glover had just left an entertainment venue called The Bonfire which at that time was located near the intersections of Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and Finley Avenue. People were leaving the venue and there were at least two Atlanta police officers working off-duty as security guards.
Hollowell Parkway is a state-owned highway that happens to be one of the most dangerous street for pedestrians in the city, according to a Georgia law firm.
Handy-Carey received the call a few hours later and immediately booked a flight from Ohio to Atlanta, arriving at the scene of the hit-and-run by 8 a.m.
But by then, city officials had already removed all evidence from the crime and it looked as if nothing had happened. Not even a single officer was on the scene.
Then when she went to a local police station to obtain more information, the Black cop at the front desk said he knew nothing about the incident but called a supervisor, placing him on speakerphone so she could hear the conversation.
“He calls his supervisor and said, ‘there’s a lady here. She said her daughter was killed. Her name is Brittany Glover,’” Handy-Carey recalled.
“The supervisor, who sounded white, said, ‘Well, what the hell does she want us to do about it?’”
“I don’t know if he knew we were on speaker or what but even if we weren’t, the callousness, the coldness, that he didn’t even care. And he had the audacity to say that?” Handy-Carey said.
“And I said, ‘If it was a white woman, he would never have said that.’”
When she received the initial police report, it contained no relevant information, she said.
“There were no names of witnesses that the officer talked to. They didn’t even take written statements from the officers working that night at the Bonfire.”
“And I never got the crime scene photos or the (body camera) videos from police.”
Tracking Down Witnesses
Handy-Carey, who just turned 60 last month, began conducting her own research, passing out flyers in the condominiums in the area, asking if anybody had seen anything.
“When we were passing out flyers, this young man that worked for the Bonfire said that after Brittany was hit, an officer ran out and tried to get the license plate off the car and prevent other cars from hitting Brittany but that’s not in the police report. Why isn’t it?”
The young man told her it was a red jeep that struck her daughter, ending up with a shattered windshield, but when she mentioned that to Atlanta Police Sgt. Hatfield, who was handling the investigation, he told her witnesses had told him it was a green jeep or a white sedan.
But she said police made no attempt to track down a jeep with a shattered windshield at local body shops or even government databases.
“I told him, ‘there are only so many red jeeps and only so many green jeeps. Why can’t you call the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles)?”
“He told me they don’t have the resources to so that,” she said.
“And I’m like, ‘You could if you wanted to, if I was some famous person.’ I told them, ‘If Brittany was Governor Kemp’s daughter or if she was (Atlanta) Mayor Andre Dickens’ daughter, you would move hell and high water to find out who did it.’”
“The same way they did when (former Atlanta Mayor) Keisha Lance Bottoms’ nephew was killed, they moved the land to find who did it.”
“And it shouldn’t have to be that way, a life is a life. Her life mattered to me and her brother and her family. It shouldn’t have to happen to somebody with status for the law to do their job and hold people accountable,” Handy-Carey explained.
She also brought up the case in Idaho where recently convicted murderer Bryan Kohberger was arrested for killing four young women after a camera spotted a white Hyundai Sonata.
“They said that there were 22,000 white Hyundai Sonatas that fit his description but they found the person,” she said.
But when Handy-Carey persisted in getting Hatfield to investigate, he told her he didn’t follow through with interviewing witnesses because of “conflicting stories.”
Sgt. Hatfield has since retired, and Atlanta police told local media the case is currently in “inactivated status due to inconclusive leads in the investigation.”
But Handy-Carey said they never bothered to chase any leads in the first place because her case was not considered high profile.
Demanding Accountability from City Council
After getting nowhere with police, Handy-Carey has been trying to convince the city council to add safety measures at that intersection, including crosswalks, lights, lower speed limits and cameras that actually record, but she has been met only with empty promises.
She points out that the neighborhood where her daughter was killed is predominantly Black and believes that played a factor in her daughter’s death.
“For me, vehicular homicide and violence is a health crisis in the Black and Brown communities because most of those communities have state highways going through them,” she said.
“How are you going to put a three or four lane highway in there and not put sufficient safety measures in there for pedestrians? Not only are people walking but there are cyclists. And what about the blind man who has to count his steps and walk across the street or the person in the wheelchair?”
“If you look it up, Black and Brown communities are disproportionately affected by these dangerous designs.”
The city council also offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the driver, but nobody has come forward with information.
“I asked them, ‘how many more people have to die before you make this a priority’ because there have been several people who have died since then,” she said.
She said police have tried to pin the blame for the deadly incident on her daughter by claiming she did not cross Hollowell Parkway at a crosswalk – but there was no crosswalk at the time and there still isn’t a crosswalk in that intersection.
“(Hollowell Parkway) is the fifth deadliest street in Atlanta, and that didn’t happen overnight,” she said. “So how dare you try to discredit and blame my daughter for your lack of leadership.”