A Coweta County sheriff’s deputy will not face charges after he shot a man in the back during a chase last year, leaving the suspect permanently paralyzed, authorities said.
Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herb Cranford said Monday in a news release that the deputy was justified in his use of force, which came after the suspect shot at him and hit his patrol car. The GBI investigated the shooting and turned its findings over to Cranford’s office, which has declined to pursue charges against the deputy.
Mario Clarke of Newnan was paralyzed as a result of injuries he sustained when he was shot during the chase on April 18, 2021, Cranford said in the release. Before the chase and shooting, Clarke had fled from a mental health facility where he’d been committed by his father after multiple incidents that resulted in serious charges during the previous few months.
The day Clarke was shot, Cranford said, he led officers from multiple agencies on a high-speed chase in a stolen car before crashing and fleeing on foot, kicking off an hourslong manhunt. In an exchange captured by the Coweta deputy’s body-worn camera, Clarke can be seen firing a shot at the deputy’s patrol vehicle before the deputy fired at least eight shots through his windshield in response.
In Cranford’s announcement, the DA placed Clarke’s shooting in the context of two earlier incidents.
In January 2021, Clarke had been arrested in Henry County and charged with making terroristic threats, Cranford said. While he was out of jail on bond for that charge, he was arrested in Coweta after exchanging gunfire with his father at his father’s home in March, Cranford said. The incident was captured on the home’s security camera and led to an aggravated assault charge against Clarke.
According to Cranford, Clarke’s father told authorities that Clarke had been acting strangely and made comments about his father and other family members being “imposters” prior to the shooting. Clarke’s father posted bond for him after the March arrest and checked him into a mental health facility, Cranford said. At the time, the DA’s Office chose not to prosecute Clarke and closed the case against him.
On the day of the shooting, a man flagged down a Newnan police officer to report that his car had been stolen just before 1 a.m., Cranford said. The man told the officer he saw an old friend from high school, who he only remembered as Mario, while at the gas station and agreed to give him a ride home. While the man was standing outside of his car, the suspect, who authorities later realized was Mario Clarke, jumped into the driver’s seat and fled.
Officers quickly found the car on I-85 and briefly pursued it, Cranford said. Clarke crashed soon after the chase started and abandoned the car by the interstate, running into some woods near a PetSmart distribution facility, Cranford said. Officers set up a perimeter and brought in a K-9 unit to help locate Clarke, but they were unsuccessful.
Around 11 a.m., about 10 hours after the initial car theft, Cranford said deputies spotted Clarke walking through the parking lot of the PetSmart facility. When they approached Clarke, he again ran away. At that point, the deputies noticed he was carrying a handgun.
Another hour later, the deputy who ultimately shot Clarke was driving the perimeter established by law enforcement when he saw Clarke run from the woods near the Whitlock Recreation Center, Cranford said. The deputy followed Clarke in his patrol car, pointing his Taser from the driver’s window and ordering him to drop his gun. When Clarke refused, the deputy attempted to stun Clarke with the Taser.
The bodycam video shows the deputy miss Clarke with the charge. After the Taser fires with a crack, Clarke can be seen turning and firing a shot at the patrol car as the deputy ducks.
As Clarke turns back and continues to run, he passes behind a tree as the deputy fires multiple shots at him through the patrol car’s windshield. The deputy’s aim follows Clarke as he continues to run away, then Clarke collapses after the deputy’s sixth shot. The deputy fires at least two more shots while Clarke is on the ground.
Clarke was flown from the scene to Grady Memorial Hospital but was paralyzed as a result of his injuries, Cranford said. At the scene, officers recovered a 9mm Glock 26 that had been stolen from a car in the PetSmart facility’s parking lot, the DA added.
Cranford said Georgia law allows a law enforcement officer to use deadly force against a suspected felon under three circumstances: when the officer believes the suspect possesses a deadly weapon, poses an immediate threat of physical violence against the officer or others, and when there is probable cause that the suspect has committed a crime that inflicted or threatened to inflict serious physical harm.
According to Cranford, this incident satisfied all three conditions that would permit the deputy to use deadly force.
“In light of all these facts and circumstances, the fact that Clarke was shot in the back does not change the analysis that the deputy was lawfully justified in using deadly force when he did,” Cranford said.
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