A Monroe County deputy remains on life support after being shot while responding to a suicide call, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said Monday.
Deputy Michael Norris — allegedly shot by a suspect after going to a home in Bolingbroke — has been declared brain dead, and is being kept alive so that he can donate his organs, spokeswoman Allison Selman-Willis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday. A second deputy, Jeff Wilson, was also shot. He remains in the hospital, Selman-Willis said.
“Deputy Norris is an organ donor and they are waiting to find recipients,” Selman-Willis said.
On Sunday, initial reports from the Monroe County Coroner’s office said Norris had died. The sheriff’s office said he was alive. The coroner’s office later Sunday afternoon clarified Norris was brain dead, but alive.
The sheriff plans to charge Norris’ alleged assailant Christopher Keith Calmer with murder once Norris is taken off life support, according to Selman-Willis.
Here’s how the shooting occurred, according to authorities. About 5:45 p.m. Saturday, deputies Norris and Wilson were sent to Calmer’s Bolingbroke home after a report of an attempted suicide, Selman-Willis said. The deputies were told the man had a gun.
When Norris and Wilson arrived at the home, Calmer exchanged gunfire with them, striking both deputies. Calmer also was shot, Selman-Willis said.
The deputies and Calmer were taken to the Medical Center of Central Georgia where Norris was declared brain dead , Monroe County coroner Joey Proctor told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday.
Wilson remains in the hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
Calmer was treated and released Sunday. He is being held at an undisclosed facility on multiple charges including one count of attempted murder, two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and five counts of aggravated assault, Selman-Willis said.
The incident is still under investigation by the sheriff’s office and the GBI.
Norris started with the sheriff’s department two years ago as a jail officer. He served as a school resource officer at K.B. Sutton Elementary School for the 2013-2014 school year and transferred to the patrol division in June.
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