An Alabama woman called in a false report that led to a deadly officer-involved shooting last month in northwest Georgia, the GBI said Friday.
Dorothy Marie Gass, 65, was charged with one misdemeanor count of false report of a crime nearly two months after the fatal Walker County shooting, GBI spokesman Greg Ramey said in a statement.
Gass surrendered at the Walker County jail, but she was released on her own recognizance.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
On Jan. 1, just after 3:15 a.m., deputies arrived at a Rossville home after Gass called and said her daughter-in-law, Amy Gass, threatened to kill her children and then herself.
Once on the scene, Deputy John Chandler saw Amy Gass’ father, Mark Steven Parkinson, with a gun in his hand.
Parkinson was aware someone was outside the home, Ramey said. Deputies announced multiple times they were from the sheriff’s office.
But authorities said the 65-year-old man pointed his gun at the deputy, who then fired multiple shots, killing Parkinson.
No officers were injured in the shooting.
The GBI found no evidence that Amy Gass threatened her children or herself.
In the days following the shooting, Diana Parkinson, the victim’s wife, told Channel 2 Action News they heard commotion outside and thought maybe intruders were on the property.
“By the time I got into the kitchen, which probably was 30 seconds after he got up, he was already on the floor and had been shot,” she said.
She thinks if her husband had known that law enforcement officers were outside, he would’ve put his gun down.
“He is not the type of man that would aim a weapon at someone,” she said, “unless he thought someone was going to hurt his family.”
— Staff writer Steve Burns contributed to this article.
In other news:
About the Author
