Officer involved in teen's shooting had clean record

Luther Lewis is The name of the officer involved in last month's fatal shooting of a Union City 19-year-old.

Sources confirm Lewis is the officer who got into a fight with Ariston Waiters during an arrest last December.

Police said Waiters tried to take the officer's gun, the two struggled and then Waiters was shot.

The Medical Examiner's Office said Waiters was shot twice in the back.

Through an Open Records Request, Channel 2's Tony Thomas got a copy of Lewis' personnel file, which shows he has a clean record as a Union City officer.

There are no formal complaints shown in his file and his commanders gave him high remarks in yearly reviews.

In his last review in early 2011, a supervisor remarked, "Luther Lewis always displays tact for the general public and other employees. He is always willing to listen to the general public." And in another section it said, "Always willing to carry his own work load and demonstrates a good trust and dependability for ethical and moral behavior."

Records show Lewis has been with the department since April of 2007.

During that time, he was called up for one year's military active duty in Afghanistan before retuing to work in Union City.

The records paint an entirely different picture than the one described by protestors upset about the shooting.

At rallies and in interviews, activists and Waiters' family members have been naming Lewis for weeks, despite the fact Union City officials have never officially released the name.

"I am here to tell you who Luther Lewis is," activist Derrick Boazman told a large crowd late last month.

Another speaker told the crowd, "Officer 'Machine Gun' Lewis will go to jail!"

Thomas took the file to Waiters' mother Frieda for her reaction.

"I just want justice and I want the truth for what happened to my son," she said.

"It doesn't matter to me about your file. Whoever put those bullets in my son, I want that person prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Waiters said.

Union City Police said Waiters was fighting with Lewis, trying to take his gun, when he was shot and killed.

"My thing is how do you get shot in the back?" Waiters said.

"Clean record, dirty shooting," declared family spokesperson Marcus Coleman of the National Action Network.

The Public Integrity Unit of the Fulton County District Attoey's Office is investigating the shooting.

The entire file will not be released until the probe is wrapped up.

The Waiters family said they've been told that could be mid-to-late February.