The GBI has opened its 50th officer-involved shooting investigation this year after a Sunday night incident in Walker County that injured a deputy and a suspect.
Sgt. Thomas Agredano has been treated and released from the hospital, but the suspect, identified by the GBI as 47-year-old Travis Thomas of Chickamauga, was in critical condition Monday morning, officials said.
According to the GBI, deputies exchanged gunfire with Thomas after responding to a domestic call at a home on Claire Street in Rossville, which is located just south of the Georgia-Tennessee line.
Thomas fired first, and the deputy was hit about 9:40 p.m., said Joe Montgomery, the GBI special agent in charge.
Responding deputies fired multiple rounds, hitting Thomas several times. Both the wounded deputy, who was not named, and Thomas were taken to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga.
The GBI is investigating at the request of the Walker County Sheriff’s Office, Montgomery said.
This incident happened three days after the GBI was asked to investigate its 49th officer-involved shooting of the year. In Murray County, deputies were trying to serve active warrants from neighboring jurisdictions to 33-year-old Billy Williams, but he allegedly tried to drive away in a van, nearly hitting officers, the GBI said.
One deputy fired his weapon, hitting the van but not the suspect. The van drove off the roadway shortly after, and he was arrested on charges of drug possession and aggravated assault on a police officer, the GBI said. He was booked into the Murray County Jail.
In 2018, the GBI investigated 95 officer-involved shootings, including 53 fatal incidents. 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.
— Staff writer Zachary Hansen contributed to this article.
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