Search warrants indicate he had threatened his wife with an axe, and deputies fired on him after he came out of the house with an object in his hands.
But now his widow and mother are asking questions about the amount of forced used by deputies that night, and say the SBI is giving them few answers.
Initially, they say they were told by the Sheriff's department Cody had been shot four or five times. And, they told Eyewitness News they didn't blame deputies for what happened - that it was Cody's fault.
But then they saw a medical report that gave them pause.
"He was shot over 15 times from his waist to his head," said Pam Hart, Cody's mother.
"He was not my husband that night," said Danna Knisley, Cody's widow. "If somebody would have helped me do something, he would never have got to that point. This boy, he was flipping out. He lost it."
Family members say Cody was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and became suicidal, but getting him help became impossible.
When deputies arrived at his home - family members say Cody greeted them with a gun.
Warrants say three deputies fired shots.
"They completely blew his right eye out of the eye socket," Hart said. "They kept shooting. I want to know why. They could have used a taser. A taser shoots 10 to 15 feet from a person. The nearest cop was six and a half feet from him."
"If it would have been four times and the same outcome, you know, I could deal with it a little bit better. But that right there is wrong," Danna Knisley said.
The Sheriff's office policy states deputies can use deadly force for what they "reasonably believe to be the use or imminent use of deadly physical force."
Still - Knisley's family says they want to talk tot he SBI - which is investigating the shooting - but can't reach anyone.
"If somebody would just sit down and tell me, where I didn't have to lay awake at night and wonder about this and that and this and that, I mean, I'm not going to like it any more, I'm not going to feel any better about the situation. But it would be a little easier to deal with, Danna Knisley said.
Hart is also pleading with Governor Perdue to fix the state's mental health system, so something like this doesn't happen again.
Classifieds | Report A Typo |
Send Tip |
Get Alerts | See Click Fix
Follow @abc11 on Twitter | Become a fan on Facebook
