‘It Was Traumatizing’: Outraged Georgia Family Questions How They Were Forced Out of Home at Gunpoint With No Eviction Notice, No Sheriff or Marshall and No Due Process

An Atlanta-area mother claims her family was illegally evicted at gunpoint and without a court order, while attorneys say the incident underscores a rise in such cases since 2020, stressing that landlords must follow legal procedures regardless of tenant debt.

Cherise McMoore shared her traumatic experience with WSB Channel 2 last week, revealing a severe case of unlawful eviction in DeKalb County while shedding light on the surge of unregulated evictions across the country since the end of the pandemic.

The terrifying confrontation involving McMoore allegedly happened in April when a leasing manager at the Cavalier at 100 Apartments on Panola Road in the Atlanta suburb of Stonecrest came to her unit with the armed DeKalb police officer, who also serves the property as a courtesy officer.

“As I opened the door and stepped out, I just seen a gun just in my face,”  McMoore told the station . “It was traumatizing. It was really was.”

Claiming she was staring down the barrel of a loaded rifle, McMoore said she complied with the officer’s commands and told her family to move quickly, but she recognized this was outrageous and illegal.

“You’re telling us that we have to leave, on an eviction that hasn’t gone through,” she explained to WSB.

The McMoores have since moved out of the apartment, a step they took after a $16,000 judgment in favor of the complex. Court records show that both parties agreed the judgment would be waived if the tenants vacated the property, which the apartment complex confirmed they did.

But that still didn’t resolve the matter involving the officer and the rifle.

McMoore recorded cellphone video as the ordeal played out, capturing the moment when the woman from the rental office said, “I’m the assistant manager; locks have been changed,” indicating the eviction was being enforced right then and there.

All the while, the officer stood beside the property manager with a long gun, although he denied ever pointing it at McMoore.

McMoore said the pair forced her entire family out of the apartment despite not having an order from a DeKalb County judge.

“Why hasn’t she shown you any eviction papers, because there is none,” she told WSB following the incident.

In the video, the officer tells McMoore that she has the option to pursue legal action if she disputes the decision to evict her without warning.

“If you want to sue them for wrongful eviction, you can do that,” the officer advised McMoore. However, the video does not show him pointing the weapon at the woman.

McMoore’s son, the person responsible for the lease, admitted that he had fallen behind on the rent.

But Cherise McMoore said she expected they would be given due process before being evicted.

“Everybody’s got a hard time, and we still do have to go through the process,” she told the station.

WSB reviewed court records and found that a magistrate judge approved an eviction in McMoore’s case in October 2023, but the very next month, the complex dismissed the case without prejudice.

The apartment management refiled for eviction later that month, seeking $1,703 in unpaid rent. The case was dismissed due to the absence of both the attorneys and the management in court.

McMoore’s attorney, Daniel Crumby, stated that no official court order for eviction was on file at the time of the incident.

“To be clear, their actions happened before the governor signed this new bill, empowering law enforcement to enforce criminal trespassing,” Crumby told WSB, referring to a landmark tenant protection bill signed into law by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp back in April.

The law established new rules for rental properties by ensuring homes are livable, giving tenants three extra days to pay overdue rent before eviction can be filed, and capping security deposits at no more than two months’ rent.

Erin Willoughby, an attorney for Atlanta Legal Aid, said landlords are bound by the laws of due process.

“A landlord can’t simply decide that they don’t want you in their property anymore,” she said, according to WSB.

Willoughby says it doesn’t matter how much a renter owes: Landlords still have to follow due process. She says legal advocates across metro Atlanta are seeing more illegal eviction cases.

“The way the law is set out in Georgia, there’s one person and one person only who has the right to tell you that you no longer have the right to live somewhere, and that person is a judge,” Willoughby said.

Willoughby noted that the involvement of a DeKalb police officer in McMoore’s eviction was also problematic, emphasizing that only sheriff’s deputies or marshals have the legal authority to carry out such actions.

“In order to actually set someone out from their property, a courtesy officer is never legally empowered to take that action,” she said.

Following the incident, McMoore filed a complaint against DeKalb Detective Winston Simms, prompting an internal affairs investigation that found Simms violated department policies by assisting apartment management with the eviction. However, the probe found no evidence that Simms pointed the rifle. McMoore called the findings hogwash, maintaining that the officer had the gun trained on her before she started filming.

“He directly had it in his hand. He had both his hands up on the gun. It was directly in my face,” she said.

Simms stated in his report that management requested his assistance to remove squatters in the unit held by McMoore. At the time, the officer acknowledged that, as a police officer, he lacked the authority to perform evictions but agreed to help the assistant manager to ensure her safety.

Later, the property’s corporate office issued a statement to WSB clarifying that the management’s actions were not an eviction but merely an occupancy check, explaining the officer was simply helping the manager and that the property had reached out to local authorities to confirm the status of the tenants.

‘It Was Traumatizing’: Outraged Georgia Family Questions How They Were Forced Out of Home at Gunpoint With No Eviction Notice, No Sheriff or Marshall and No Due Process