Senoia chief responds to accusations of officer's rudeness from 'Walking Dead' fan

Image 1 of 6

A south metro police chief released images taken from an officer’s body camera to try to quiet critics after police stop a man walking down the middle of the road.

App users: View full article here

A fan of The Walking Dead took to social media to complain the Senoia Police officer was rude when she ticketed him for walking down the middle of the street near one of the show’s sets. Many on social media began to blast the town and its police force following the post, but the chief was not having any of it.

Senoia Police Chief Jason Edens said the officer’s body camera shows a completely different story. The chief said the fan was walking down Gin Street near the Alexandria set near downtown Senoia, but from there the two stories diverge.

The man, who posted on a Senoia Facebook page, a post that has since gone viral, describes how the man said the officer was rude to him.

“Today I was treated the rudest by officer Woden of the senioa police dept. Me and my girlfriend was heading home from Atlanta and thought we would stop in senoia cause we are huge walking dead fans. We ate at Nic to Norms, which was fabulous. Afterwards we thought we would walk down by where they tape Alexandria.. we  started walking down a road we thought was not an actually traffic road. We were walking in middle road which we never denied and we saw a cop car with their light on sitting on the side,” the post reads.

Senoia's police chief said the man has filed an official complaint with the department as well. After investigating and watching the video he has come to a different opinion and since posting the video to Facebook, the overwhelming social media reaction is now on the side of the officer.

"The officer was direct, but at no time as rude, conducted herself as per our standards," the chief said.

The officer ticketed the man for walking in the middle of the street. His girlfriend was given a warning. The chief said it is a big safety concern in Senoia because he said the street next to the Walking Dead set is open to traffic.Senoia because he said the street next to the Walking Dead set is open to traffic.

"Gin Street, where this situation occurred, is a highly traveled roadway used by residential traffic, used by tractor trailer traffic for our industry area," said Chief Edens.

The chief said walking down Gin Street is permitted, just walk to the side and stay out of the middle of the street.