In a roughly 48-hour span beginning Friday night, three men were killed and two more were shot during encounters with metro Atlanta law enforcement officers.
The deaths and injuries occurred in four separate incidents, two of which were in Gwinnett County. The others were in Newton and DeKalb. Three incidents involved shots fired by law enforcement officers, while one man died after being “drive stunned” with a Taser.
With only preliminary information released about each case, their surrounding circumstances range from seemingly justifiable to potentially controversial. All four are being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
• At about 8:15 p.m. Friday, Newton County sheriff's deputies stopped a vehicle inside Covington's Village at Ellington subdivision after they received multiple complaints about a suspicious vehicle in the area, GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang said.
Four men were inside the vehicle, authorities said, and “at least one” of them pointed a gun at deputies. Both deputies at the scene fired their weapons, striking two men.
The GBI announced Sunday that one of the men, 20-year-old Freddie Blue, had died from his injuries. The second was treated at Grady Memorial Hospital and released.
• Around 4:15 a.m. Saturday, Gwinnett County police responded to the 5100 block of Rock Place Drive after a 911 caller reported his neighbor, 53-year-old George Mann, was "locked in (the caller's) garage, was irate and possibly armed."
“An altercation ensued,” officials said, and Mann was “drive stunned” by one of the five officers at the scene. Mann “went unresponsive” at the scene and was later pronounced dead at Eastside Medical Center.
“Drive stunning” generally refers to when a Taser is used by placing it directly against a person’s body, rather than by using a cartridge to fire projectiles.
Lang said a gun and “suspected methamphetamine” were found in the garage where Mann was located.
• About 3:20 a.m. Sunday, DeKalb County police Officer Chester Lamb was shot five times before killing his alleged assailant at a Stone Mountain-area apartment complex.
Lamb, who remained in serious but stable condition Monday, was one of two officers responding to the Marquis Pointe apartments after several residents had reported a man firing a gun into their building.
The suspect, Frederick Farmer, opened fire on Lamb and his fellow officer upon seeing them, Lang said. Farmer was shot multiple times by Lamb and pronounced dead at the scene.
• About 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Gwinnett County police responded to a domestic dispute at a home on Mission Oak Drive near Grayson.
A man had come to the home, which belongs to his ex-wife, and “threatened to kill everyone,” Sgt. Brian Doan said. Two teenagers ran from the house and called 911, and when officers arrived, “they encountered the male outside the residence still armed with a handgun,” Doan said. “The male refused to drop his weapon and was shot multiple times.”
The man was taken to Eastside Medical Center following the shooting. As of noon Monday, authorities had not released his identity or his condition.
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