GBI: Man found dead in woods hours after being shot by Douglasville officer

A 43-year-old man was found dead in the woods early Friday, about three hours after being shot by a Douglasville police officer, the GBI said.

The Douglasville Police Department was called to the Crestmark Apartment Homes in Lithia Springs to investigate a domestic incident. A 911 caller told dispatchers a man was pointing a gun at a woman, Douglasville police said in a Facebook post.

The officer arrived shortly after 4 a.m. and encountered Carlos Jackson, 43, of Decatur, in the breezeway of an apartment building, the GBI said.

“Jackson was armed with a rifle and pointed the rifle at the officer,” the GBI said in an emailed statement. “The Douglasville police officer fired his gun, striking Jackson.”

Jackson jumped from the second floor of the building and ran into the woods behind the complex, according to investigators. Around 7:12 a.m., Jackson was found dead in the woods, the GBI said.

No officers were injured, according to police.

The Douglasville department asked for the GBI’s assistance in investigating the shooting. It is the 44th police shooting the state agency has investigated this year and the third in the past 24 hours, following shootings in Holly Springs and Savannah.

Holly Springs police Officer Joe Burson, 25, was killed late Wednesday night when he was dragged by a vehicle during a traffic stop, according to the GBI. Burson fired his gun, killing 29-year-old driver Ansy Dolce before the vehicle careened off the road and into a ditch.

In Savannah, officials said Jacob Anthony Palmer, 29, of Virginia, was shot by a Georgia State Patrol trooper Thursday afternoon at the end of a police chase. Palmer was accused of assaulting a Chatham County police officer and stealing a patrol car.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also tracks officer-involved shootings that don’t involve the GBI, and those numbers sometimes differ from the GBI’s tally.