A man running from a traffic stop Tuesday night fired shots at a DeKalb County police officer, and the officer returned fire, authorities said.
The suspect, who has not been identified, was shot and taken to Atlanta Medical Center in critical condition, DeKalb police Chief James Conroy said at a news conference. No officers were hurt, Channel 2 Action News reported.
The officer pulled over a car with three people inside, including the suspect, at a Chevron gas station at 2450 Candler Road near Misty Waters Drive, Conroy said. Police did not release the reason for the traffic stop.
The man is accused of running away from the car, jumping a fence and firing at least one round at the officer before the officer fired back, striking him. According to the GBI, a weapon was found at the scene.
The man’s fiancée told AJC.com on Wednesday that he was still in critical condition but was expected to live. While she asked not to be identified, she said he is the father of her 5-year-old child.
The two other people in the car were taken in for questioning, Conroy said. No other details have been released.
This brings to three the number of officer-involved shootings on a one-mile stretch of Candler Road in the past 40 days.
DeKalb police Officer Edgar Flores was also chasing a man from a traffic stop when he was shot multiple times in the 2000 block of Candler Road and killed Dec. 13, just days before his 25th birthday.
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The driver, 33-year-old Brandon Taylor of Decatur, was later tracked to a business a block down the road and found hiding behind a pile of tires. He fired shots at DeKalb officers, striking a police dog, before the officers returned fire, killing him, according to the GBI.
MORE: Little known about alleged DeKalb cop killer
Weeks later, one man was killed and another was injured in a Jan. 7 shootout with an off-duty Clarkston officer outside a Red Lobster in the 2500 block of Candler Road. The officer was not hurt.
The GBI confirmed that the agency was called to investigate the latest officer-involved shooting, which is standard protocol in such cases. Investigators were still processing the scene Wednesday morning.
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This is the seventh such investigation the agency has opened in 2019 and the second officer-involved shooting in 24 hours.
An Atlanta police officer shot and killed a man while serving a warrant at an apartment complex in northwest Atlanta on Tuesday morning. Because the officer was working as part of a federal task force, the FBI is investigating that incident.
MORE: Man dead in federal operation involving Atlanta officer; FBI investigating
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