WNEG-TV

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TOCCOA - It's been nearly a week since a young Lavonia pastor was fatally shot outside a Toccoa convenience store. People here in Northeast Georgia are still wondering what really happened the day that 28 year old Jonathan Ayers was killed.

"I think it was gangsta. Anytime you approach a person in plain clothes and you're retrieving a weapon from the back of your clothes, you ain't got time to say hold up I'm an officer. You already got your weapon drawn." Michael Harris is just one of the residents here in Toccoa that has seen the surveillance video from last Tuesday that shows undercover drug agents trying to stop 28 year old Jonathan Ayers from leaving this Shell gas station. "I think that guy really thought he was being robbed."

Harris says he would have been just as scared if two men came at him the way the officers allegedly approached the pastor's car. "He over-reacted, he over reacted. I think justice will be taken care of." Others say they don't know why Ayers didn't stop his car when he had the chance.

"I can't figure out why he'd run. From what I hear they wanted to question him about a girl that was in his car," Harold Skeleton tells WNEG News.

"Well when it comes to a pastor, I can't say that they did their jobs because pastors don't do wrong. At least to my knowledge they don't," Bobby Dial adds.

Although WNEG News was able to get a few people to talk about the shooting on camera, many more people that we spoke with Monday would only make comments off camera, afraid they'd say the wrong thing.

Some said they didn't have all the facts but others said they didn't want to run into any trouble with the law because they voiced their opinions on television.

As people continue to talk about what happened last Tuesday afternoon, Joe Joseph is just trying to get things back to normal and assure customers that it's safe to come to his store.