An off-duty Fulton County police officer shot a man after a chase in Atlanta on Wednesday morning, the GBI said.
Officer Christopher McLean was in his personal vehicle about 11 a.m. when he responded to a theft at a T-Mobile store on Mount Zion Parkway in Morrow, GBI spokesman Rich Bahan said.
McLean followed James Elder’s car into the city limits of Atlanta while reporting the incident to 911, Bahan said.
At some point near Alyson Court, the two cars collided. When Elder got out of his car, McLean shot him with his service weapon, Bahan said.
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Witness Jay Mitchell told Channel 2 Action News he thinks Elder was shot in the stomach area after McLean chased him and tried to pull him over.
Elder kept driving even after he was shot, Bahan said, and Atlanta police stopped him in the 1700 block of Lakewood Avenue.
Whether the off-duty Fulton County officer stayed on the scene was not released, but McLean’s car was found parked at a store on Cleveland Avenue, Channel 2 reported.
Elder was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, Bahan said.
The shooting is the fourth in less than a week involving a Georgia officer.
A Georgia State Patrol trooper fatally shot a man after a chase early Saturday in Polk County. Jason Dennis Watkins, 36, was taken to Polk County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Willie Ivy III, 29, of Atlanta, died after a Fulton County police officer and an armed security guard shot him early Saturday in College Park, the GBI said.
A Pickens County sheriff’s sergeant on Tuesday shot and critically injured Gary Lee Castle after he “moved aggressively” toward the official “with a large metal pipe in his hand,” the sheriff’s office said.
In January and February, the GBI conducted 17 officer-involved shooting investigations, agency spokeswoman Nelly Miles said.
The GBI investigated 78 police shootings in the state last year.
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