A Middle Georgia father accused of kidnapping his children was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies Tuesday after he rammed three patrol vehicles with his car, officials said.
Keith Young, 30, was under investigation after his estranged wife told authorities he tied her up inside their Bibb County home and took their three children. The children were with Young’s family and were not in the car when the shooting occurred, according to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies became involved about 5:45 p.m. They met with the victim on Karlee Dawn Drive after she broke free and ran to a neighbor’s house for help, Sheriff David Davis told reporters from the scene.
As they were speaking with the woman, Young returned to the neighborhood in a pickup truck.
“The husband came back, saw the sheriff’s cars at the end of the road, suddenly sped up and crashed into the sheriff’s cars,” Davis said. “One of the sheriff’s cars had the deputy still in it. She was slightly injured.”
Photos from the scene showed the pickup truck rammed into the back of a cruiser, which appeared to have been pushed into another patrol vehicle. The rear of that vehicle was lifted into the air by the impact.
The vehicles were then sent into an SUV, which rear-ended the third cruiser. The injured deputy was in the second cruiser, according to the GBI.
Two deputies standing in the street opened fire on Young, striking him, the GBI said. He was taken to Navicent Health Medical Center in Macon, where he died.
The children were turned over to sheriff’s investigators, who returned them to the custody of their mother late Tuesday night.
According to Macon news station WGXA, Young was a teacher and coach at Academy of Classical Education in Macon. He taught social studies at the high school for two years but was not going to return in the fall, a spokeswoman for the school told the news station.
“This incident is currently under investigation along with the assistance of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
It is the 42nd officer-involved shooting the state agency has investigated this year, spokeswoman Nelly Miles said.
The Bibb County incident follows another domestic disturbance that resulted in an officer-involved shooting in Middle Georgia. On Saturday, 27-year-old Deon Damon Bowden was shot multiple times by police and sheriff’s deputies in Monroe County after he allegedly opened fire, drove his vehicle toward them and again brandished a gun, according to the GBI.
Bowden remained in critical condition at Navicent Health as of Sunday, the state agency said.
RELATED: Police shoot man who fired at officers, smashed vehicle into patrol cars, GBI says
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also tracks officer-involved shootings that don't involve the GBI, and those numbers sometimes differ from the GBI's tally.
— Please return to AJC.com for updates.
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