In just over one hour Tuesday afternoon, deputies in two Georgia counties opened fire on the subjects of domestic violence calls, officials said.
The two shootings, in Cherokee County and Pulaski County, are under investigation by the GBI.
In Cherokee, 47-year-old Jason Peterson of Canton was shot and killed during an encounter with sheriff’s deputies, the state agency said. Just before 1 p.m., deputies were called to a home on Pintail Court to investigate a domestic incident that occurred earlier in the day. They were given information about a suspect and began trying to locate him, GBI spokesperson Nelly Miles said.
They found Peterson armed with a rifle at a location off Lawson Drive, she said. Few details were released about their encounter.
“Ultimately, the man was shot and died at the scene,” Miles said.
No one was injured in the shooting in Pulaski County, which was reported about 2 p.m., according to the GBI. Pulaski sheriff’s deputies responded to a domestic call on Unadilla Highway and saw Phillip Rivers, 38, of Orlando, Florida, parked outside a home with a female passenger in his vehicle, officials said.
“Rivers drove away from the scene, striking the deputy’s patrol vehicle,” GBI special agent Lindsey Wilkes said in a news release. “At this time, the deputy heard gunshots that he thought was coming from inside the fleeing car. The deputy shot at the fleeing car.”
Wilkes said the deputy eventually realized the gunfire was not coming from the car, but from inside the home.
“The resident was shooting at the vehicle because he thought the vehicle had the deputy pinned between the vehicles,” she said.
Deputies chased Rivers until he lost control of his car on U.S. 341, according to the GBI. Rivers and the woman ran from the wreck and were captured a short time later, the agency said.
Rivers was arrested on two counts of fleeing, a single count of criminal interference with government property and numerous traffic offenses. The GBI did not identify his female passenger or release any additional information about the initial domestic call.
Both shootings remain under investigation. They are the 28th and 29th officer-involved shootings investigated by the GBI this year.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also tracks officer-involved shootings that don’t involve the GBI, and those numbers sometimes differ from the GBI’s tally.
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