A man was shot after swinging a ratchet strap at a police officer Friday morning, according to Clayton County police.
The string of events began around 11 a.m. when Clayton officers spotted an Atlanta Department of Watershed Management work truck that was reported stolen from Fulton County sometime Friday morning, according to the GBI.
Police tried to detain the man driving the utility truck, 19-year-old Parker Ellington Dilworth, but he drove through barricades and crashed near a a bridge construction site, GBI said.
Clayton officers responded to the 4200 block of Old Dixie Road near Forest Park after the car crash with injuries was reported, according to police officials.
“Prior to officers’ arrival, a witness advised a male involved in the accident exited the vehicle, took off his clothes and ran into the woods,” Julia Isaac, a police spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.
Officers searched the area and located Dilworth at the construction site near C.W. Grant Parkway and Old Dixie Road, Isaac said. The Atlanta man was attempting to break into a parked pickup truck using the metal part of the ratchet strap, according to police.
Multiple officers commanded Dilworth to drop the heavy, tie-down strap, but he began to twirl it in an attempt to use it as a weapon, a GBI spokeswoman said in a statement. Officers attempted to stun the teenager twice, but the Tasers were not effective, authorities confirmed.
When Dilworth lunged at police and swung the strap at an officer, the officer shot him in the leg, according to GBI investigators. The suspect was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life threatening, police said.
The GBI was requested to assist with the officer-involved shooting, the 82nd such investigation the state agency has handled so far this year.
There were 68 police-involved shooting across the state by this time last year.
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