Two DeKalb County officers shot while responding to a domestic violence incident the morning before Thanksgiving will get to spend the holiday with their loved ones.
The injured officers were identified by their last names only as Sgt. Matthews, a supervisor who has been with DeKalb police for 11 years, and Officer Howell, who has been with the department for four years.
Both were rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital. Howell was discharged several hours later, while Matthews is expected to be released Thursday.
The suspect, identified by police as 20-year-old Demetrius Sutherland, is facing charges of aggravated assault on a police officer and family violence battery.
“Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful and blessed, and we are grateful and blessed today that our officers will be able to spend Thanksgiving with their families,” DeKalb police Chief Mirtha Ramos said during a news conference outside the hospital.
The shooting took place at about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Waldrop Park condo complex south of Panthersville, just outside the Perimeter, according to the fire department. The area, nestled between Panthersville Road and Flat Shoals Parkway, is surrounded by dense woods and lies south of the South River.
Ramos told reporters that dispatch received an “open 911 call,” meaning no one was on the other end, but the operator could hear “arguing in the background.”
Two officers responded to the home and were told by a woman that her son was “behaving aggressively,” Ramos said. The woman told officers that he was arguing with her and another person in the apartment, and then directed them toward the unit.
When officers approached a bedroom door, officials said Sutherland fired at least two rounds at them.
Credit: DeKalb County Police Department
Credit: DeKalb County Police Department
“A domestic (violence) call is one of our most dangerous phone calls, but realistically, the moment you put this uniform on, it is dangerous. We don’t know what the day is going to entail. You could be having lunch and be confronted by a subject,” Ramos said. “Every day is unpredictable for us.”
After one of the officers was shot, he still pursued the suspect, Ramos said. The officer was able to take Sutherland into custody with the help of other officers arriving at the scene.
Howell was shot in her foot, and Matthews was shot in the leg, Ramos said. Only one was transported by ambulance, while the other was taken in a patrol vehicle.
“We are thankful that two of our officers who were wounded in the line of duty, from early indications, there will be a full recovery,” DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond said during the news conference.
By Wednesday afternoon, Ramos said the department was waiting to secure a warrant to search the home.
Caroline Simmons lives in the 228-unit complex. She said those who live there have become “accustomed” to violence and are now “numb.”
“It shouldn’t be happening, and it wouldn’t have had to happen if our concerns were taken seriously,” Simmons said of the gunfire.
Cory Smith, who lives in a townhouse down the street, said although Waldrop has seen its share of crime, he can’t remember a police presence like this in the several years he’s lived in the area. He said there are occasionally break-ins, and he remembered a police chase involving a stolen vehicle about two years ago.
But he said the neighborhood has become more quiet in recent years.
Just a quarter-mile away from the shooting, Debra Thomas, who runs the wig shop Shuggs on Waldrop Place, was still processing the news. After a friend called to tell her about the gunfire, she was shocked to hear it happened so close by.
”I don’t know what happened, but it’s scary. Somebody shooting at the police,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
There have been other acts of violence against Georgia police officers so far this year, including two officers shot and killed in the line of duty.
Paulding County Deputy Brandon Cunningham was shot to death Aug. 17 while responding to a domestic violence call near Hiram. He was 30. Three days later, Carroll County Investigator Taylor Bristow was shot while attempting to serve a warrant. He died from his injuries Aug. 23.
— Staff writers Rosana Hughes, Dylan Jackson, Ashley Ahn and Alexis Stevens contributed to this article.
