Woman shot multiple times after firing at officer; 7 detained

Officials are investigating after a woman was seriously injured Thursday in an exchange of gunfire with a Gwinnett County SWAT officer.

A woman was shot multiple times early Thursday after firing at a Gwinnett County SWAT officer, police said.

The incident started about 6:30 a.m. when a SWAT team went to a home in the 2400 block of Buford Dam Road near Buford to serve the woman “high-risk” arrest and search warrants, Cpl. Michele Pihera said.

As officers entered the home through multiple points, the woman started shooting at one of them, Pihera said.

“We know that she fired at least two rounds at one of our SWAT officers,” she said. “And he was able to return fire, striking her multiple times.”

At least one of the bullets hit her in the torso. The woman went down, and SWAT medics took her outside to an ambulance, according to police.

She was taken to Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, where she was listed in critical condition.

While the officer was not hit by any of the gunfire, he had a minor injury to his arm, Pihera said.

Carlos Huggins (Credit: Gwinnett County Police Department)

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He has been identified as Officer Carlos Huggins, according to Pihera. He has been with the department since July 2010.

Seven other people were inside the home when police tried to serve the warrants, which were related to drug activity. All were detained, but police do not know if any of them have active warrants.

“To my knowledge, they’ve been cooperative with this investigation,” Pihera said.

A woman was shot multiple times after shooting at a Gwinnett County SWAT officer Thursday, police said. (Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM)

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Police have not released the names of the woman or the seven in custody.

However, Pihera said there have been multiple ordinance violation calls and checks at the home in the past 10 months.

The GBI, which investigates use-of-force cases, is looking into the incident.

There have been 72 officer-involved shootings in Georgia this year, according to the GBI. In 2016, the agency investigated 77 officer-involved shootings.

No other details have been released.

— Please return to AJC.com for updates.

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