A former Georgia police officer was recently indicted for failing to properly investigate a murder case. In a disturbing twist, the allegations suggest that he refused to look into the homicide case because it implicated his brother in the 2021 murder of Javarreis Reid.
D’Marquivius Jamon King turned himself in after being charged by a Spalding County grand jury with violating his oath of office. The failure to act not only compromised the investigation but also jeopardized the trust placed in local law enforcement.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said D’Marquivius Jamon “DJ” King, 25, was indicted by a Spalding County grand jury with one count of violation of oath of office.
The GBI said that Mr. King was working as an investigator for the Griffin Police Department when he was looking into the 2021 slaying of Javarreis Reid.
The agency said Mr. King learned his brother, Damon Beck, was tied to the killing and subsequently “failed to properly investigate the murder.”
Prosecutors allege that once King found out that his brother may have been involved in the grisly murder, he failed to inform his superiors.
“It was determined during the investigation that Investigator King’s brother Damon Beck is involved in the murder,” an internal reprimand from November 2021 states, according to WXIA. “Investigator King failed to notify his chain of command of the conflict of interest and did not list Damon Beck as a suspect on any documentation.”
The reprimand said that King was in violation of the department policy that police department employees have a duty “not to give false or misleading information.”
Then-police chief Michael Yates said at the time that Beck was King’s half brother and the two had never lived together, and that King’s only wrongdoing was “poor documentation of his casework,” WXIA reported. Yates was placed on “non-disciplinary, administrative leave” in April 2023 and retired shortly after, the WXIA story said.
King was put on administrative leave on Feb. 27, 2023, as the GBI investigation was underway. He resigned from the police department in September, WXIA reported.
The case came under scrutiny in February 2023 after prosecutors asked the GBI to examine King’s handling of the murder investigation. Beck was arrested eight months after Reid’s murder. He is one of three defendants held in the Spalding County Jail.
The murder was discovered in May 2021. The victim was brutally shot multiple times.
Just before 2 a.m., Spalding County Coroner Michael Pryor was dispatched to a residential intersection blocks away from downtown Griffin, Georgia.
“The main thing I remember about it was the brutality of it,” Pryor said.
Authorities discovered Javarreis Reid shot multiple times, lying face-up on the asphalt, according to police and coroner’s reports.
Pryor pronounced him dead at the scene in the dark early hours of May 9, 2021.
Authorities formally ruled Reid’s death a homicide. He was 25 years old.
“I still get chills,” said Reid’s friend Ray Muhammad. “I think about this young man who had a bright future, a beautiful daughter.”
King’s indictment and arrest shed light on his alleged misconduct, but they also call for a more comprehensive discussion about the lack of mechanisms in place to prevent this type of breach of trust.
The penalty for this crime tends to vary based on the circumstances of the violation. Under Georgia law, an officer who violates their oath of office could be subject to a range of penalties, including incarceration for up to five years in prison.
