A 43-year-old Griffin police officer was shot and killed early Saturday at a restaurant where he was working an off-duty security job.
As Officer Kevin Jordan, a father of seven, scuffled with one of three customers he had asked to leave, one of the others shot him in the back multiple times, Griffin police said.
Jordan’s brother, who had been visiting him while he worked, then shot that man.
The brother, Raymond Jordan, told Channel 2 Action News, “I don’t want to be bitter. But the only regret I have is that I didn’t kill him.”
Michael D. Bowman, 30, was in critical but stable condition at Atlanta Medical Center. Bowman is charged with felony murder in Officer Jordan’s death.
In a statement, Griffin police said that Bowman, Chantell Mixon, 28, and Tyler Taylor, 23, caused a disturbance and were asked to leave the restaurant around 2:20 a.m. An altercation spilled into the parking lot, where Officer Jordan tried to arrest Mixon, Officer Mike Richardson with the Griffin Police Department said. Mixon is Bowman’s girlfriend, according to Channel 2. She is also charged with felony murder.
Jordan was on the ground trying to restrain Mixon when police say Bowman “maliciously shot” him multiple times in the back, Richardson said.
Raymond Jordan told the television station that Bowman, Mixon and Taylor were drunk, used racial slurs and did not respect his brother, an ex-Marine who had been with the Griffin Police Department for four years. He said his brother was just trying to to his job, and was in full uniform when he was shot.
Richardson said Raymond Jordan was in the parking lot when the gunfire erupted and grabbed his own gun, which he has a permit to carry. His brother often worked there on weekends, police said. Raymond Jordan was not charged Saturday in Bowman’s shooting. Police did not say why not.
Mixon was also charged with felony obstruction. Taylor was charged with disorderly conduct. It was not clear if the three suspects had hired attorneys, and several calls to their relatives Saturday went unanswered.
Darlene Buhlinger, Bowman’s aunt, did speak to Channel 2. She said she was in “disbelief” about what happened. She told the television station that her nephew had a permit to carry a gun but never thought he was capable of shooting anyone.
“That’s somebody’s son, daddy,” she said. “I mean I don’t even know what to feel. I’m so sorry for that family.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting. The Griffin Police Department has asked the public to pray for Officer Kevin Jordan’s family, who will have to make funeral arrangements just as they were preparing to celebrate the upcoming high school graduation of one of his seven children.
“We are deeply saddened by these events and send our condolences to the family of Officer Jordan,” the department said in a statement. “We request that you keep the Jordan family in your prayers and thoughts as well as our local law enforcement community. Officer Jordan will be greatly missed.”
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