Atlanta police say they recovered $6,000 in cash, two pounds of marijuana and more than two ounces of cocaine after Monday night's officer-involved shooting that left one man dead and another in jail.
Darius Smith, 18, of Greer S.C., was shot to death after he opened fire on officers, police spokeswoman Elizabeth Espy said. Smith was the passenger in a Jeep that crashed after the driver tried to out run a patrol officer during a traffic stop, Espy said.
The driver, 18-year-old Isaiah E. Irby of Greer, S.C., is in the Fulton County jail on charges of cocaine trafficking, possession of marijuana with intent to sell and weapons charges. The two men also had three handguns and other drugs such as ecstasy, Espy said.
Irby and Smith both tried to flee on foot after the crash. Smith died in the parking lot of the Aloft Hotel at 300 Ted Turner Dr., formerly Spring Street, and Irby was arrested nearby, Espy said.
A .45-caliber pistol with several discharged shell casings was found by Smith, police said. A search of the Jeep turned up two most pistols along with:
- 2.04 pounds of marijuana
- 60.60 grams of cocaine
- 10 ecstasy pills
- 5.8 grams of MDMA
- $6,000 in cash
- black mask
- black gloves
The shooting happened around 8 p.m. Monday when a police cruiser met the Jeep going the wrong way on Ted Turner Dr. and did a U-turn to make a traffic stop, Espy said. The Jeep driver fled and crashed near the hotel.
Witnesses described chaos at the scene when more than a dozen gunshots erupted while police were taking control of the area.
“Gun shots were coming from every angle,” Bryceton O’Neal told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Cops were running behind cars, taking cover.”
O’Neal said he was driving a co-worker home after dinner when a multitude of police cruisers passed him on Ted Turner Dr. and came screeching to a halt by the Aloft. He said as he pulled over he saw dozens of officers, many carrying assault rifles and shotguns, surrounding the area.
After a number of officers had jumped over a chain-link fence into what appeared to be the hotel parking lot, gun shots erupted and the police returned fire, and a number of officers rushed the building containing the hotel, O’Neal said.
“Right after I clicked record on my phone, gunshots started on my left,” he said.
There was about a 15-second pause in gunfire and the shots erupted again and O’Neal saw a man fall. He said he wasn’t sure if it was the person police were pursuing.
JohnPaul Wegener said he and his friends were outside the Scales 925 restaurant when they witnessed the crash outside the hotel and saw police cruisers converge on the scene.
“We see this car blow right through the intersection and it smacked this (hotel shuttle) bus,” he said. “There were police cars everywhere.
“We started to hear gunshots — pow, pow, pow— it was pretty scary.”
A .45-caliber pistol with several spent shell casings was found by Smith’s body, Lee said. Three police officers were involved in shooting the man, Lee said.
No officers were injured.
— Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this article.
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