GBI: Man fatally shot by off-duty police officer outside Columbus strip club

An off-duty Columbus police officer shot and killed a man while intervening in a shooting outside a strip club early Friday morning, according to the GBI.

Alonzo Carter, 32, was fatally shot around 2:30 a.m. near the Flame strip club, formerly known as Club Fetish, at 4504 Armour Road, the GBI said in a news release. Carter was hit multiple times and died at the scene.

According to the GBI, two police officers were working security at a Chevron gas station next door when they heard shots being fired in the area of the club. Both responded to the shooting and encountered Carter, who was firing a handgun, according to authorities.

The off-duty officers told Carter to drop his gun, but he did not follow their orders, the GBI said. One of the officers then fired at Carter multiple times, hitting and killing him. A semi-automatic handgun was recovered from Carter’s body at the scene, the GBI said.

Neither of the officers was injured.

The GBI said it will investigate the shooting at the request of Columbus police.

Anyone with information about this investigation is asked to contact the GBI’s Columbus investigative office at 706-565-7888. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-8477, visiting https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online or downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.

This is the 25th officer-involved shooting to be investigated by the GBI this year and the second in Muscogee County within a week.

On March 5, three teenagers in a stolen car were pulled over by a Muscogee sheriff’s deputy, the GBI said. Two of the teens stepped out of the car and opened fire on the deputy, hitting him once in the shoulder. The deputy returned fire, hitting each of the two suspects shooting at him. A bystander was also shot in the leg, the GBI said.

The deputy and both injured suspects were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the GBI said. The three 17-year-olds in the car, Adarrius Hamilton, Claudie Thompson and Vicente Perez-Lopez, were each charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and obstruction of an officer.

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.