LaGrange police said a man armed with a machete raised the weapon above his head and charged at officers moments before they shot him, leaving him seriously injured.
The LaGrange Police Department on Thursday released body and dashboard camera footage of the shooting that sent 39-year-old Ronald McCormick to a hospital. It remains under GBI investigation.
Officers first encountered McCormick in downtown LaGrange after a citizen reported an “armed subject acting suspicious” near Lafayette Square early Tuesday morning, police said in a statement.
When police found him on Greenville Street, they took his name and confirmed he was armed with a long knife. Footage from an officer’s dashboard camera appears to show McCormick carrying the weapon while walking along a sidewalk.
“I just want to talk to you and let you know that we got the call,” the officer said in one video. “So can I talk to you for a minute?”
The officer is heard asking McCormick to “put the machete down and talk to me for a minute.”
“I’m not going to take (the machete). I don’t want it. I just want to talk to you,” the officer is heard saying.
The officer and McCormick continue to exchange words from a distance. While much of what McCormick says is inaudible during the video, the officer frequently replies with reassurances that he doesn’t intend to harm him.
“I’m just trying to find out what’s going on, why you’re walking around with a machete,” the officer said in the video. “It just causes concern to people.
LaGrange police then allowed him to leave after determining that no crime had been committed and “there was no legal basis to detain McCormick,” according to the department’s statement.
Later, police learned that McCormick was wanted on outstanding warrants accusing him of battery, cruelty to children and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. The officers sought him out for a second time and found him walking with the machete still in hand.
An officer responded and tried to approach McCormick, but he ran away and the officer called for backup. Another officer arrived and confronted McCormick, who refused to drop the machete, authorities said.
“Drop the machete, sir! Drop the machete, you’re going to get shot,” the officer can be heard yelling in video from his body camera.
McCormick can be heard replying: “I don’t give a (expletive).”
Police tried to use a Taser on McCormick, but it was ineffective, GBI spokeswoman Natalie Ammons said. An officer then shot McCormick multiple times, seriously injuring him.
In the video, McCormick can be seen falling to the ground. An officer approaches him with his weapon drawn and tells him to roll onto his stomach and stretch his arms out “like an airplane.”
“Have you been shot at all sir,” the officer asks.
“Yes, sir. In my stomach,” McCormick replies.
Several officers can then be seen approaching McCormick and turning him onto his back. An officer encourages McCormick to talk to her while she lifts his shirt. A second officer applies gauze to the gunshot wound.
McCormick was taken to Piedmont Hospital in Columbus and underwent surgery. Further information on his status was not released. No officers were injured.
McCormick was previously charged in two cases involving possession of methamphetamine in 2016 and 2020. In another 2017 case, he was accused of hitting an 11-year-old boy in the face and pushing his head into a wall, according to online court records. In that case, he faced one count each of first-degree cruelty to children, battery and obstruction. McCormick submitted negotiated guilty pleas in the earlier two cases but the 2020 drug case is still pending.
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