DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 5:46 p.m. December 19, 2008
Police shoot, kill alleged kidnapper on Cheshire Bridge
Suspect had kidnapped pedestrian, who called 911 and asked for help in Spanish
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, December 19, 2008
An Atlanta police officer shot and killed a man who allegedly had kidnapped a pedestrian early Friday and was being pursued by a patrol car in northeast Atlanta, police said.
The officer fired one shot at the suspect, striking him in the chest, after the man got out of his vehicle and reached for his waistband, said Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows, commander of the homicide unit.
John Spink / jspink@ajc.com
A man lay dead in Cheshire Bridge Road on Friday morning. Atlanta police homicide was dispatched after 6 a.m. to the area.
The man, George Pierre, 31, of Atlanta ran away, stumbled to the ground, got up and ran into street, where he was tackled by another officer and died.
The shooting happened shortly before 6:30 a.m. near a Waffle House and other shops at Cheshire Bridge Road and Alco Street, near Lindbergh Drive.
It was the second time in as many days that Atlanta police were involved in a shooting — both of which occurred as officers confronted suspects committing violent crimes, police said.
Late Thursday morning, Atlanta police officers exhanged gunfire with an armed man who police said was running from a house in northwest Atlanta that he had just tried to rob. No one was injured, and the suspect was taken into custody.
In Friday’s shooting, Atlanta police had been following the car for about a mile, Meadows said.
The kidnapping victim, an unidentified 31-year-old man, had just left another Waffle House. He was walking along Buford Highway near Lenox Road when two men in a burgundy Pontiac Grand Prix pulled up and forced him into the car at gunpoint, Meadows said.
They demanded money from the man, who said he had to call someone to get some, Meadows said. Instead, the victim called 911 on his cell phone and spoke Spanish to a police dispatcher.
The kidnappers, Meadows said, “didn’t understand what he was saying, but he was actually giving directions to a police dispatcher.”
A patrol car soon got behind the Pontiac and tried to pull it over, but the driver, Pierre, refused to stop, Meadows said. The driver pulled off Cheshire Bridge, stopped in the parking lot of an adult nightclub, 24K Club, and then backed into the police cruiser, Meadows said.
Pierre got out of the Pontiac and allegedly acted aggressively, prompting one officer to shoot.
Police have not found a weapon, Meadows said. The Pontiac had been reported stolen out of Griffin.
The other suspect, 44-year-old John Wright, stayed in the car and was soon taken into custody. He is facing charges of felony murder, robbery and false imprisonment.
— Staff reporter Mike Morris contributed to this report.
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