Gunfire echoed through the streets of downtown Augusta for about three minutes Saturday during a deadly shootout between a man and Richmond County deputies.
After the last bullet was fired, the man, who had pointed a gun at strangers earlier in the day, was killed and a sheriff’s deputy was injured, according to the GBI. State and city officials identified the injured deputy as Kenneth Mercer.
“We join his loved ones and the entire law enforcement community in asking God to keep him stable and on the road to recovery,” Gov. Brian Kemp wrote on Twitter.
The slain man, identified as 36-year-old Duterval Sejour, was described as homeless, according to Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen.
The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office was called to an area near 12th and Ellis streets around 11:30 a.m. about a man with a gun and found Sejour in an enclosed section of a local business. As deputies spoke with the man to get him to surrender his weapon, there was an exchange of gunfire, GBI officials said.
Sejour was shot and died at the scene just before 2 p.m., according to Bowen.
Video taken by The Augusta Press showed law enforcement members posted on rooftops as gunshots rang out during the chaos. Other deputies took cover behind patrol vehicles at the scene, which encompassed an entire city block.
The deputy was taken to the hospital to be treated for his injuries, which were not disclosed.
“Please join us in keeping Deputy Kenneth Mercer and the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office in your thoughts and prayers,” Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson wrote on Facebook.
The GBI will conduct an independent investigation into the officer-involved shooting. Once completed, it will turn over its findings to the Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution. The incident was the 50th officer-involved shooting the state agency was asked to investigate this year, down from 67 incidents over the same time period in 2022.
The 51st officer-involved shooting occurred Monday when police in Jackson County, about 115 miles northwest of Augusta, shot a man who refused to drop a “machete-type weapon,” the GBI said. That man, who has not been publicly identified, was taken to a hospital in Gainesville. No one else was injured.
In March, Richmond County deputies shot 52-year-old Shawn Gunn after he opened fire from the front door of an Augusta home, the GBI said. Prior to the shooting, Gunn allegedly shot and killed his wife, and deputies found her body in an upstairs bathroom, officials said. Gunn was booked into the county jail.
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