Man shot by Cobb police after allegedly attacking Publix employees, cops

Police said they received several calls about the man attacking people in nearby parking lots.

Police said they received several calls about the man attacking people in nearby parking lots.

A man was shot by a Cobb County police officer after authorities said he attacked several people Sunday morning, including grocery store employees and law enforcement officers.

The incident began with a 911 call from the Publix shopping center on Alabama Road about 7 a.m., Cobb police spokesman Sgt. Wayne Delk said in a news release.

Officers were sent to the store after someone reported a man was physically attacking employees as they arrived, he said.

The man, identified by the GBI as 22-year-old Jeffery Thomas Moore of Woodstock, was gone by the time police arrived. However, the department received more 911 calls reporting a man was attacking people in nearby parking lots, according to Delk.

When police found the man, he attacked several officers, leaving one injured, Delk said.

Moore refused to comply with the officers’ commands and ran away, according to GBI spokeswoman Natalie Ammons. Police later found him hiding in a yard on Bedell Road.

Moore once again disobeyed orders when police tried to arrest him, Ammons said. Officers tried to shock him with a Taser while trying to take him into custody.

One of the officers fired his weapon at Moore, according to Ammons. He was hit, but managed to run away once more, she said.

Investigators from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, the Roswell Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol helped Cobb police find the man one more time, Delk said. Moore was located in a wooded area and taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital with a gunshot wound to the waist. His injuries are not considered life-threatening.

Cobb police contacted the GBI to investigate the shooting. The incident is the 39th such investigation the agency has opened in 2020, Ammons said.

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.

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