MEDIA RELEASES

Questions Linger Over Officer's Death

 

2004 Officer Betts Memorial Service

Click on the picture to enlarge
Reported By:  Jerry Carnes
11alive.com 12/21/2004

East Point police Officer Christopher Betts


East Point police Officer James Weinmann


A composite sketch of the alleged hit-and-run driver.
A memorial service has been planned for an East Point police officer who was killed in the line of duty two years ago. Questions still remain about the death of 26-year-old Officer Christopher Betts and police are still searching for a witness who may hold the answers.

When Betts died, he left behind a wife and a child who is now two years old. He also left behind a partner, Officer Jamie Weinmann, who has been struggling for the past two years to deal with what happened. He believes a witness could bring him answers and peace if only police could ever find her.

What Weinmann knows about Dec. 22, 2002 is whatever he's been told. Weinmann was right there on Interstate 285 in East Point when his best friend lost his life. He saw it all but the day has vanished from his mind.

“It's a double-edged sword,” he said. “You don't want to remember the accident, but, you keep asking yourself questions -- Why? What happened? What if?"

It was 1 a.m. in the morning and Weinmann was on the road for the East Point Police Department when he went to help his partner and friend.

Betts had stopped a suspicious person on the side of I-285. There was a struggle and the three fell into oncoming traffic. The suspect and Betts were killed.

Two years later, Weinmann is on desk duty and is still recovering from his injuries and still trying to remember exactly what happened.

“Did I do everything right? You know, if I did, why are two people dead? And one of them's my best friend,” he said.

He thinks a witness to the incident, a woman, could fill in the blanks. Police know her only as a nameless sketch. She was driving one of three cars that hit Betts that night. She stopped only for a moment, then left.

“I would like to get her side of the story, what she saw,” Weinmann said. “It's like she's the missing key. If she'd talk to us and tell us what happened, it would bring a lot of closure to a lot of people."

The witness was driving a brown Honda accord. Police say she was wearing a white lab coat.

Anyone with information is being asked to call East Point police @: