Two men suspected in a gunrunning case started a shootout with a DeKalb County police officer who attempted a traffic stop Friday afternoon in Tucker.
Other officers arrived and one was shot as they engaged in a gun battle with the two men at the corner of Northlake Parkway and Lawrenceville Highway just before rush hour Friday.
Police captured one of the gunmen at the shooting scene and arrested the other a short time later tracking him with a police dog, Capt. Steve Fore said.
The patrol officer tried to pull over the suspected gunrunners on Northlake Parkway at the request of detectives, according to Cedric Alexander, director of public safety for DeKalb. Instead of stopping, the suspects hit the gas and crashed the Chevrolet Traverse into a sign at a RaceTrac gas station at the intersection with Lawrenceville Highway, Alexander said. The two men inside the SUV got out and fired shots at the officer, he said.
The two suspects fired shots at a police officer, and the officer fired back, Alexander said. Within seconds, a heavy police presence swarmed the already busy area until both suspects were arrested.
Officer Marco Vizcarrando, a 19-year veteran officer, was shot in the shoulder, according to police. Fellow officers initially believed the injured officer’s wounds were too serious to wait on a medical helicopter, and instead used the DeKalb police chopper to get the officer to Grady Memorial Hospital, Alexander said.
“He is alert, he is conscious, but he did take a very nasty wound,” Alexander said at the scene.
The injury was a “through-and-through” shoulder wound and Vizcarrando, 47, was treated and released Friday night.
Police arrested Rome Crowe, 21, in the parking lot of a service station, and Isaiah McCray, 24, was tracked to nearby Robinhill Drive after fleeing through neighborhoods and woods, Fore said. Both men face aggravated assault on a police officer and other charges, Fore said. Neither man sustained significant injuries, he said.
Police believe at least one of the men fired a fully automatic pistol at the officer, Alexander said. The officer returned fire and pursued the suspected gunman across the convenience store parking lot. At least one other patrol officer responded immediately to assist, Alexander said.
The shootout happened less than 2 miles from DeKalb police headquarters.
“This was a running gun battle,” Alexander said. “The (officers) were taking deliberate shots, but we had bad guys who didn’t really care, they just fired at random.”
Officers captured one man in the parking lot and another was quickly captured with the help of a K-9 unit, Alexander said. The bullets missed hitting anyone else at the crowded intersection, according to police.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff member in the area heard at least five gunshots before at least a dozen police cars arrived in the area. Several lanes of Lawrenceville Highway were temporarily blocked during the police investigation.
— AJC staff member Rachel Lister contributed to this article.
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