The fiancee of a 35-year-old man who was shot and killed by police Sunday morning says he didn't pose a threat.
Canton police officers first found Chad Erik Roberts, 35, of Canton, in a parked car outside a closed pharmacy Saturday night. After briefly speaking to an officer, Roberts decided to flee and he ran over the officer’s foot in the process.
“He didn't deserve to be gunned down the way he was,” Victoria Tallent told Channel 2 Action News. “They could have disabled him if they needed to.”
Roberts called Tallent moments before he was killed, saying he knew he was caught but that he was going to make a break for it.
Moments later, she heard the gunfire.
“I hollered his name; I screamed his name and I realized that he was gone,” Tallent told Channel 2. “It was just seconds after he called me, seconds after he got out of his car and it was the end."
Among Tallent’s many questions is whether officers saw Roberts with a gun.
GBI spokesman Bahan Rich said after Roberts led police on a chase from Canton into Kennesaw early Sunday morning, officers used a tire-deflating device to stop the car on I-75 northbound near the Wade Green Road exit.
Roberts got out of his car with a gun in hand, Rich said.
That’s when two Woodstock police officers opened fire.
“He didn't deserve to be killed like this,” Tallent said. “He wasn't a runaround thug like they've been saying."
Rich said Tuesday the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office performed an autopsy, but the final results are pending toxicology and ballistics testing.
The officer whose foot was run over was treated at a hospital and released.
No other officers were injured during the incident and the GBI is continuing its investigation.
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