Name:
Graham, Deandre Rashaad
Date of Booking:
01/08/2023
Reason(s) For Booking:
CRIMINAL TRESPASS – FAMILY VIOLENCE – M
Officer’s Narrative:
[Please note: The following is a direct transcription from the official initial incident report. The Georgia Gazette does not fix any spelling or grammatical errors that may exist. Any changes or redactions made by our staff are placed inside brackets. Some errors may exist. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The topics discussed may be sensitive to some readers. Discretion is advised.]
I responded to what was initially broadcast as a civil matter. The initial call notes stated that the caller, DeAndre Graham, said that his girlfriend had locked him out. He told dispatch that he had made a police report previously but then also said that he was under the influence of narcotics and repeatedly threatened to “bust her door down”.
Other notes in the call said that Graham was “holding a rock for his anger” and that he was engaging with another unidentified party and the call taker could hear Graham yelling and cursing at the other party. He then told the call taker that he was getting extremely anxious and that he was going to walk towards the address provided before disconnecting with the call taker.
While I was waiting for my backup officer dispatch advised that Graham had called back and now said that the female had a knife and possibly a gun. It further advised that Graham was barricaded inside a room with their baby and that he would hurt the female if he found she had a knife when he opened the door.
Upon my arrival I found the front door to the location open and heard both male and female voices yelling from inside the residence. As I approached I made contact with the female party, Lamara James, who was in the hallway. I saw that she was not armed at the time and told her to stay with Ofc Pelligrini while I made contact with Graham who was still barricaded in a bedroom in the middle of the hallway.
I identified myself by saying “Savannah Police” and Graham cracked the door to see me. I was still offset from the door because I hadn’t been able to see Mr Graham or anything behind the door but instead of cooperating as he opened the door Graham, who was still on the line with the call taker, began yelling and asking why I had my hand on my pistol which was still in it’s holster and still under level 3 retention.
I tried to speak to Graham but he threatened to call Judge Harris O’Dell and have me fired. I kept trying to speak with Graham but he continued to stay on the line with the call taker while demanding my name and badge number. He then said that he felt threatened and that if he hung up with the call taker he was going to call his lawyer.
After about two minutes Graham finally agreed to speak with me by first trying to show me text messages but he kept scrolling forward and back without me being able to record the messages. He let me hold the phone but as I got my notebook out to record the messages he took the phone back and tried to show me the picture of a CRN card in the message thread but I couldn’t make out the report number because the picture was blurry.
I asked him what happened today and he said “What do you mean what happened? She let me in then she tried to fight me!” He also said that she was trying to “trick him into jail”. He also showed and read off to me a text message from James where she threatened to throw hot grease on him but again I was unable to get Graham to allow me to get the date and time from the text message.
Once I was able to get Graham to disconnect with dispatch I asked him again what happened today. His response was “Nothing, I just told her I was coming home and she trying to fight me” then he said that she had run to grab a knife. I asked him to show me the text messages again and he showed me the phone but as I tried to look at the messages but he kept scrolling the phone as I tried to read the messages.
As I read throught the messages I saw a section of the message thread where Graham said that he was “coming home” at 0432 hrs. He followed up with “Open up the door”. James replied after this and I saw that she said that she was in the Summerside neighborhood which was followed up by Graham who said “I’m about to kick the door down” followed by “or go back through a window”.
At this point while I was still trying to read through the messages Graham and James began to argue about if he actually resided in the residence with Graham saying that he had lived there a month and James saying from the other room that she had only been there for three weeks. At this point Graham became intent to show us his dirty clothing as a way of proving that he lived at the residence specifically indicating a set of “army clothes” and walked off toward the rear of the house.
I followed him to the rear of the residence into the laundry room where Graham began pulling laundry out of the dryer all of which appeared to be towels, sheets and other such items. He then said that she claimed that James “played games” and would hide his clothes to make it look like he didn’t live at the location. At that time Ofc Pelligrini came to the back laundry room where we were at after Cpl Rich and Sgt Manuel had arrived on scene and were with Ms James.
Graham again became confrontational and started asking if he was now under arrest. He then unzipped his jacket and removed it while I told him that we were just trying to figure out his side of what happened but he was walking all over the apartment and not answering questions. He then told me that he had anxiety and uncontrolled anger and that he wasn’t afraid of dying and burried his hands into the pockets of his pants. I told him that he was going to say things like that he needed to take his hands out of his pockets at which time he pulled his hands out of his pockets and threw down lighters, small rocks about 3-4 inches across and other items.
I told him that I was trying to help him at which time said “You think I’m lying, you looking at me like you want to kill me. Just pull your gun out and shoot me in the face”. At this point due to Graham’s erratic behaviour and him solicitating me to shoot him and that he wasn’t afraid of dying I believed that he posed a risk to himself and officers. I told him to put his hands behind his back and Ofc Pelligrini helped me handcuff him during which time he continued to say that I was trying to kill him “Because that’s what y’all do” after which time we escorted him out to Ofc Pelligrini’s patrol vehicle.
While he was in the vehicle Sgt Manuel tried to speak with him and figure out what happened. I overheard Graham tell Sgt Manuel that he had come from somewhere on 32nd St. He admitted to knocking on the window and that she had told him to stop before he broke it. He said that she had let him in the house and after he was inside James went to the kitchen and he hear a drawer open and something rattling around inside which he interpreted to be her getting a knife which is why he clained that he locked himself in the bedroom with the child. He further said that James never brandished or threatened him with the knife. He also said that he had told the dispatcher that he was on “Molly” but had only had marijuana recently. He said that this was to get PD to respond faster.
After securing him in the vehicle I explained the events that had occurred up to that point to Sgt Manuel and told her that I still needed to interview Ms James. I ran both parties before returning to the house at which time I found that James showed a felony warrant from the Tattnall County Sheriff’s office. I forwarded the hit to records and asked them to confirm while I returned to the residence to conduct an interview of James with Sgt Manuel.
James said that she had been woken up by Graham knocking loudly on the bedroom window and saying “B*tch, open the door”. She said that she told him to stop before he broke the window at which time he went to the front door and began kicking it. She said that she went to the front door and asked what he wanted and he told her to open the door and that someone else was at the back door. She said that she opened the door because it’s flimsy and she was worried that he would kick it in and told us that he had already punched several holes in the wall and broken the window to another bedroom.
She said when she opened the door he came in and started searching the house looking for someone else inside and then went to the bedroom where she and their child had been sleeping and locked the door with the child still in the room with him. She said that she had gone to the kitchen where the knives were at because she said that she didn’t know his intentions but also said that she had never taken the knife out of the kitchen area as she knew that police were coming. I asked her again if Graham lived with her and she said that in the time that she had lived at this residence, which was for approximatly three weeks, she had allowed him to stay for on night at a time but said that he usually stays in the south side with another woman who is pregnant with another child of his.
I asked James to see her phone so that I could look over the message thread and she gave me her phone. I saw that on her phone that the last message recieved from Graham was at 0242 hrs Saturday January 7th. I saw that during that message thread that started at 2032 hours the night before that Graham had told James about the police report that he said he filed. Graham told her “Okay, I’m just letting you know because I got my gun with me and they dont want met to kill nobody thats in the house innoncent”. He followed by saying “If anybody at our house I’m kill them” and “I’m coming for yall a*s right now so get ready”.
I asked James the questions from the DVA lethality form and she did state that she was in fear of Graham and that she thought that at some point he might try to harm her. She also said that his normal attitude is angry and that this seems to increase his aggressiveness whenever he uses narcotics. A cursory sweep of the house revealed no items that would indicate that Graham lives there such as hygene products, additional clothing or other items.
Based on the statements of both parties and what was observed in the home we did not believe that Graham lives at the residence. I was able to find two resports involving Graham, one on January 1st (CRN 230101095) in which Graham’s grandmother stated that he came to her house and damaged several items within. That report listed Graham’s address as [1000 BLOCK] W 54th St.
The second report and the one that Graham tried to reference to me earlier in the incident was from January 6th (CRN 230106079) which on two different occasions Graham went to Central Precinct and while acting in an erratic manner, including doing a handstand against the side of the precinct, tried to get officers to take him to the location and help force his way inside after he said that James changed the locks at the residence.
Mr Graham was charged with criminal trespass DVA and was transported to CCDC by Ofc Pelligrini for further processing. His backpack was taken to the property room and logged in for safe keeping by Ofc Pelligrini. The juvenile, [REDACTED], was given to Ms [REDACTED], her sister, at the request of Ms James to be cared for in her absence. I transported Ms James to CCDC for further processing.
[End of Narrative]