What began as an undercover investigation ended as an officer-involved shooting near an Atlanta high school Tuesday afternoon.
Atlanta and East Point police were conducting the joint investigation into stolen vehicles in the Atlanta area. They were trailing a wanted man in a white Dodge Durango until about 3 p.m., when he dropped off another suspect on Six Flags Drive and realized officers were following him, Atlanta police Deputy Chief Jeffrey Glazier said at a news conference.
The officers tried to pull over the Dodge on the I-285 ramp to Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway. The SUV sped away as an officer approached, eventually making a sharp turn on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near Whitehouse Drive, Glazier said. His car then hit two undercover Atlanta police vehicles.
The driver, who was identified Wednesday by the GBI as 34-year-old Willie Banks of Atlanta, then began to hit several other vehicles and injured an Atlanta police officer, Glazier said.
That’s when Atlanta officers Sheddaren Fanning and Ali Echols and East Point officers Brandon Sanders and Tramichael Thompson fired at Banks, striking him in the knee, Glazier said.
The injured officer, who was not specified, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with serious injuries and a possible concussion. He was later released.
Banks was also taken to Grady and is stable Wednesday, according to the GBI.
Police took the unidentified passenger dropped off on Six Flags Drive into custody. Glazier said the Dodge was reported stolen and has been tied to several “slider” crimes and car break-ins across metro Atlanta.
“We know for certain that his vehicle has been involved in several crimes ... we’ve been talking about a white Dodge Durango for the past week in our crime meetings, so we have a high confidence that this is the vehicle we’ve been looking for,” he said.
The shooting took place near Booker T. Washington High School, which was briefly placed on lockdown as a result, Atlanta Public Schools spokesman Seth Coleman said. No students were injured.
“It’s always difficult to determine when the suspect will act recklessly, but we acted appropriately,” Glazier said. “The officers did a tremendous job.”
The GBI is handling the investigation into the officer-involved shooting, agency spokeswoman Natalie Ammons said. It is the 14th such investigation the agency has opened in 2019 and the second of three officer-involved shootings in Georgia on Tuesday.
Earlier that morning, a woman was shot and killed by a state trooper in McIntosh County after attempting to hit the trooper with her car during a traffic stop, the GBI said.
RELATED: GBI: Woman shot, killed after hitting trooper with car during traffic stop
A third officer-involved shooting was reported in Walton County shortly after the southwest Atlanta incident, the GBI said. A deputy shot an armed man, according to the county’s sheriff.
MORE: Georgia deputy shoots man who pulls gun during chase, sheriff says
The last time the GBI responded to three officer-involved shootings within 24 hours was October 18.
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