Batman-obsessed Georgia sheriff stole taxpayer money, shot real estate agent friend

By Charles Pulliam-Moore  |  August 3, 2015 | 4:19pm
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Clayton County Police Department Sheriff Victor Hill is under investigation for his involvement in the accidental, but brutal, shooting of his friend Gwenevere McCord, a local real estate agent. Hill shot McCord while she was showing a model home this past May. She claimed that the shooting was the result of the sheriff performing “police tactics.”

The residents of Clayton County, Georgia, best knew Hill as a man with an odd obsession with Batman. A fixture in the community, Hill was known for the large Batman statue guarding his office and handing out custom-made medallions bearing his face on one side and the Batman logo on the other. For Hill, who’s campaigned under the monicker of “The Crimefighter,” the superhero obsession wasn’t just a little quirk.


Since the beginning of his trial, Hill’s withdrawn from the public eye and repeatedly denied requests from the media for comment, but an investigation by a local news outlet has revealed that his obsession with the Bruce Wayne lifestyle is actually much more intense than previously thought.

Records of Hill’s finances during his time as a sheriff reveal that he’s expensed a number of big-ticket trips across the country to hotels and casinos under the guise of attending professional development courses.

Hill attended several martial arts workshops and survivalist conventions in addition to buying friends expensive gifts and dinners. All of this spending was done with taxpayer dollars.

“Victor Hill has had a laundry list of questionable activity,” Ryan Splitlog, assistant director of Common Cause Georgia, told The Daily Beast. “With the freak shooting and all this wasteful spending, it makes you question whether he should be Clayton County sheriff.”

Oddly, this isn’t the first time Hill has come under fire for misusing county funds. In 2012, he narrowly avoided a 32-count racketeering charge after he was discovered to be using a corporate credit card for personal purchases.

Back in 2005, when he first took his position with the police department, he made waves when he fired 27 other officers mere hours after settling into his new job. Hill, in fear that the fired officers might retaliate, insisted on having a team of snipers embedded on the roof of the police headquarters as a safety precaution.

The sweeping dismissal eventually led to a $7 million dollar settlement paid to the ousted officers.

“My favorite thing as a kid was to play cops and robbers,” Hill told Atlanta magazine. “What we play as kids, ultimately, we end up playing on the stage of life for real.”

Batman, you’ll remember, has a semi-strict no gun policy and he certainly doesn’t go around shooting friends.

 
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