A U.S. marshal deputy commander from Macon was fatally shot Friday while serving a warrant in southeast Georgia, a Justice Department spokesman said.
Patrick Carothers, 53, had located a fugitive in Long County, spokesman Dave Oney said. The fugitive, identified as Dontrell Montese Carter, was fatally shot when marshals working with Carothers returned fire.
The marshals found Carter in a trailer near Ludowici, Oney said. He was wanted for attempted murder of police officers, domestic violence and unlawfully discharging a weapon in an incident in September in Sumter County, S.C.
Carothers’ team was making entry when he was shot twice, Oney said. Other marshals returned fire, striking Carter multiple times.
Carothers was taken to a hospital in Hinesville, where he died, Oney said. The fugitive was taken to a hospital in Savannah, where he was pronounced dead.
"It's terrible," John Edgar of the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force told the Macon Telegraph. "He was just a great family man, a great employee, a great mentor and a great leader."
It’s the third fatal shooting of a Middle Georgia-based law enforcement officer recently. Funerals were last week for Peach County deputies Sgt. Patrick Sondron and Daryl Smallwood.
