One suspect in the Friday afternoon shootout that left a DeKalb police officer wounded was out on bond following a pair of previous weapons-related arrests, records showed.
Officer Marco Vizcarrando, a 19-year veteran of the DeKalb Police Department, was shot in the shoulder during the mayhem that followed a short police chase around 4 p.m. Friday. According to authorities, Vizcarrando tried to pull over two "suspected gunrunners" on Northlake Parkway when they fled and crashed their SUV into the brick sign outside a gas station near Lawrenceville Highway.
The suspects — identified as 21-year-old Rome Crowe and 24-year-old Isaiah McCray — allegedly shot at Vizcarrando, who returned fire.
Crowe and McCray were apprehended nearby, and Vizcarrando was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital via helicopter. Initially feared to be in critical condition, the 47-year-old officer was released late Friday with a “very nasty wound,” police said.
Crowe and McCray were charged with aggravated assault upon a police officer and various other offenses, a DeKalb police spokesman said Friday — and online records show the incident was Crowe’s third recent arrest in the county.
Both previous cases, which remain open, involved weapons.
Crowe was arrested alongside three other people on Nov. 14, 2014, and charged with aggravated assault and armed robbery. Details about the alleged crime were not immediately available Saturday, but records showed he was released Dec. 30 on $50,000 bond.
Four months later on April 25, Crowe was arrested again, this time on charges including carrying a pistol without a license, possession of weapon during the commission of a crime and felony drug offenses. He was released on bond the next day, records showed.
McCray, who jail records listed as a Snellville resident, does not appear to have any previous arrests in either DeKalb or Gwinnett County.
DeKalb police said that Crowe and McCray are suspects in a gun-running case and were pulled over Friday at the request of detectives. Asked about the case Friday, officials declined to provide more details on thee gun-running case, saying only that it was “ongoing.”
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