A Putnam County sheriff’s deputy Wednesday night shot and killed a knife-wielding man, officials said.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a deputy responded to the intersection of Oconee Springs Road and Sparta Highway shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday after receiving a 911 call indicating that 57-year-old Harry Warren Davis and his son were having a heated argument. The responding deputy reportedly found the men arguing outside their vehicle, which was parked in the middle of the road.
The deputy “defused the situation for a little while,” Sills said, but it escalated again and backup was called.
At “some juncture in time,” Sills said, Davis retrieved a “Navy combat survival-type knife” from his vehicle and “came toward the deputies with it.
“When he got too close and made another lunging type move, one of the deputies shot and (Davis) was killed at the scene.”
Davis was hit twice in the chest. The deputy who shot him was identified as Justin Brock, a 12-year veteran of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
Brock has been placed on leave while the Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigates the shooting, Sills said.
Sills said Davis was an Army veteran and, according to his family, had “some mental health issues” associated with that service. The sheriff said his office responded to a similar dispute between Davis and his son in February.
Sills said Wednesday’s incident was the department’s first deputy-involved shooting in his 19 years as sheriff.
“This is the first incident where we’ve shot anybody,” Sill said, “much less killed them.”
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