In the county’s first fatal officer-involved shooting of 2016, DeKalb police shot and killed a man Wednesday morning who was wielding a machete-like weapon in one hand and a live chicken in the other.
Authorities said officers tried to de-escalate the situation, which occurred in the 3000 block of Green Oaks Circle.
But police shot the man after he attacked an officer, DeKalb Assistant Chief Cornelius Yarbo said. The man later died from his injuries at Grady Memorial Hospital. His name was not released.
Yarbo said officers tried to get the man to drop what he was carrying. He said he is not sure how many shots officers fired.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Nelly Miles said a 2- to 3-foot piece of sheet metal fashioned into a machete-like weapon and two knives were found at the scene. The GBI has been asked by DeKalb police to look into the shooting.
Officers responded about 7:51 a.m. to “numerous” 911 calls after residents reported a suspicious person walking through the area carrying a chicken and some type of object.
Julie Carson, who has lived in the neighborhood for 17 years, said that type of activity is “very unusual” for the area.
Carson, who works from home, said she “heard gunshots.” When she got a closer look at the scene, she saw a “live rooster tied to a feed bag” on the curb. “To me, that was the strangest part of the whole scene.”
She said the victim was dressed in work boots, jeans and a T-shirt.
DeKalb, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis from September, has had 17 other fatal police shootings since 2010, the highest number in the state. Gwinnett had the second-most fatal police shootings among metro Atlanta counties with 14.
