Georgia State Trooper Who Jailed 84-Year-Old Black Man for DUI Because He Walks with a Limp, Accused of Pattern of Racially Profiling, False Arrests

Samuel McCrary, an 84-year-old Black man who walks with a limp, was falsely arrested on DUI charges last year by a white Georgia state trooper who is earning a reputation for racial profiling.

That trooper, Andrew Thompson, also arrested another Black man named James Mathis, 61, on DUI charges last year, dragging him out of his car and handcuffing him even though the retired postal worker said he had not been drinking.

“I’ve never been locked up, never been in trouble with the law until that night,” Mathis said in a press conference earlier this month. “This officer treated me so nasty like I was a runaway slave that robbed the bank and (was) trying to get away.”

Now the local NAACP chapter out of Houston County is threatening to take legal action against the Georgia Department of Public Safety, an agency that has come under criticism in the past for racial profiling.

“He destroyed my whole world, I tell you,” McCrary said in the news conference. “I couldn’t sleep at night.”

The Georgia Department of Public Safety did not have much to say about the allegations other than they are “looking into them.”

“When a matter regarding one of our Troopers is brought to our attention, we take it seriously,” the agency said in a statement to The Houston Home Journal.

 “We are aware of the allegations brought forward and are looking into them.”

The police agency issued a similar statement in January after a state trooper pulled over another Black man named Lawrence Dixon, accusing the Uber driver of driving while holding a phone.

However, Dixon had a camera on his dash, which proved the trooper did not see him holding a phone. The Black man posted the footage online, where it went viral, exposing the lie and leading to the citation being dismissed.

“That’s why you got to have a camera because they be lying, police be lying,” Dixon told his passenger. 

Georgia state troopers dismissed the $100 citation a day after he posted the video, exposing the lie.

“When a matter regarding one of our Troopers is brought to our attention, we take it seriously,” the Georgia Department of Public Safety said in a statement in January, according to WMGT.

“Mr. Dixon was contacted directly yesterday by Georgia State Patrol personnel. After further investigation into the incident, the charge against Mr. Dixon was dismissed.”

The name of that officer has not been released but the Houston County NAACP said he works out of the same office as Thompson in Perry whose officers patrol four counties in Central Georgia; Houston, Macon, Peach and Pulaski counties.

“If he would not have had a dashcam, things would be totally different. He would still have that ticket,” Houston County NAACP President Jonathan Johnson told WMAZ last month.

“Most of the times, majority of the times, the judge is gonna take the side of the officer. And I can understand because it’s no proof. The officer has all the power on the side of the road,” Johnson said.

Unfortunately it does not appear as if the two Black men arrested by Thompson had dash cameras in their cars. And video footage from Thompson’s dash cam, if his patrol car was equipped with one, has not been released.

The Arrests

McCrary said Thompson pulled him over in October 2024 for having a tinted license plate cover. McCrary said he offered to remove the cover but the trooper accused him of being drunk when he saw the elderly Black man walking with a limp.

McCrary said he tried to explain to the trooper that he has mobility issues and takes medication but the cop refused to believe him.

“He said, ‘You’ve been drinking?’ I said, ‘I don’t drink.’ He said, ‘Come on around and step in front of my car,’” McCrary said.

McCrary was handcuffed and transported to a hospital where he had his blood drawn, then to jail, where he spent several hours.

The DUI charge against him was dismissed last month after toxicology reports reported no intoxicating substances in his body.

However, the DUI charge remains pending against Mathis, who was never transported to a hospital to have his blood drawn, spending more than two hours in jail before he was released after paying $871 for bail.

Mathis said Thompson falsely accused him of failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign, an accusation that led to another Black man shot and killed in Michigan earlier this year.

“I said, ‘Yes, I did, I made a complete stop, I’m almost 100 percent sure I made a complete stop,’ and he was just escalating the situation, making it hostile,” Mathis said in the press conference. 

“They dragged me out of my car. Handcuffed. I’ve asked him three times to loosen the handcuffs,” said Mathis, who walks with a cane and also has diabetes and only one kidney due to cancer surgery in 2009, according to WMAZ.

“It’s racism. Police brutality is real in the state of Georgia and everywhere else.”

Trooper Andrew Thompson shares the same surname as another Georgia state trooper who shot and killed another Black man in 2020, resulting in the trooper losing his job and being arrested on felony murder charges. But charges against Jacob Thompson were dismissed after a grand jury failed to indict him in 2021.