The Aurora police officer who fatally shot a 21-year-old mother during a traffic stop Saturday has a checkered past. Court records show his past includes an alleged police brutality incident in Bull Shoals.
The Springfield News-Leader looked into David Chatman after learning he was the officer who fatally shot Savannah Hill, the driver of a car that allegedly struck another officer during the incident.
During this investigation, it was discovered Chatman once falsified a report to cover up alleged police brutality, worked at five different law enforcement agencies over four years and left at least two recent jobs on bad terms.
In July 2013, the police chief, Chatman and another officer responded to a domestic disturbance at a Bull Shoals home, one in which the chief kicked down the door without probable cause and used unnecessary force. Chatman said he intentionally left the brutality out of his police report, lied to the FBI about it and later confessed the truth in his FBI interview. Chatman, who was never prosecuted in connection with the alleged beating, said he was given partial immunity for agreeing to testify in federal court. Chatman eventually left the Bull Shoals Police Department in 2014.
Since November 2011, Chatman has worked at several law enforcement agencies in northern Arkansas, including Flippin, Bull Shoals, and Cotter. Chatman came back to Bull Shoals to work full-time before working at the Jasper and Newton County Police Departments.
Chatman has been employed by the Aurora Police Department for less than a year and the Arkansas Department of Corrections said Chatman was working in one of its prisons as recently as September.
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