An Atlanta police officer was taken to a hospital Thursday after becoming pinned between a stolen Lexus sedan and a patrol car in northwest Atlanta, officials said.
This prompted another officer to open fire on the Lexus before it sped away, according to police. While it was unknown if the occupants of the Lexus were hit by the gunfire, the GBI is investigating the incident as an officer-involved shooting.
The Lexus was first spotted in the area of Harwell Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive around 9 p.m., several hours after it was reported stolen in a carjacking, Deputy Chief Timothy Peek told reporters at the scene. An officer followed the black sedan until backup arrived, and the two officers initiated a traffic stop in the 2700 block of Peek Road.
“The vehicle then reversed and backed into one of the officers, and pinned him between the suspect car and the patrol car,” Peek said. “At that particular point in time, the secondary officer that was on the scene discharged his weapon at the driver of that vehicle.”
According to the GBI, the sedan’s driver put the car in drive, rammed the officer’s patrol car and drove off.
The pinned officer was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with complaints of pain. Peek said the extent of his injuries is unknown, but they did not appear to be life-threatening.
Police later located the abandoned vehicle a short distance away. The Atlanta Police Department’s robbery unit is investigating the carjacking and was expected to conduct forensic testing on the vehicle. No suspects were identified Friday.
“We’ll be certain that we’ll be looking for every detail,” Peek said from the scene.
The incident is the GBI’s 81st officer-involved shooting investigation this year and the second this week in Atlanta, following Monday’s deadly shooting on Luckie Street that also wounded a Molena police officer.
The officer was working an off-duty job in parking enforcement and returned fire after being shot in the neck, according to the GBI. The shooter, identified as 25-year-old Darryl McCall, died at the scene.
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.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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