The GBI is investigating after Cobb County police shot a man and a woman following a pursuit that ended in Lithia Springs just before midnight Tuesday, according to officials.
Police were called to a home on Drennon Drive near Austell Road at around 11:50 p.m. about an armed man, according to a GBI news release. The caller told police the man, later identified as 38-year-old Ricardo Tuggle, and an unknown woman were at his home trying to take his 20-year-old stepdaughter. When she refused to go with Tuggle, police said he took out a handgun and pointed it at the residents of the home.
Tuggle was later determined to be the daughter’s biological father.
Responding officers saw a silver Kia Sorento leaving the area and attempted to stop it, but Tuggle refused to stop and a pursuit ensued, the release states. Police said they chased the vehicle into neighboring Douglas County, where Cobb officers performed a PIT maneuver that ended the pursuit near the intersection of Thornton and Maxham roads.
When officers approached the vehicle, Tuggle began reaching under the driver’s seat and was shot by police, the GBI said. The 28-year-old female passenger also was shot. Both were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Tuggle remains in serious condition, but is said to be stable. The woman suffered injuries not considered life-threatening.
No officers were injured.
Officials said a gun was recovered from inside the vehicle, though they did not say where in the vehicle it was.
Immediately following the shooting, Thornton Road was shut down in that area for close to nine hours, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation. Investigators were focused on a silver SUV that was boxed in by multiple Cobb police vehicles. There were several bullet holes in a shattered front window on the driver’s side, as well as all along the body of the SUV.
The GBI will conduct an independent investigation. Once completed, it will turn over its findings to the Douglas Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review.
It’s the 37th officer-involved shooting the GBI has been asked to investigate this year. By this time last year, there had been 47 such shootings in Georgia.
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