A burglary call at a Douglas County car dealership led to a deadly shooting Thursday morning after a deputy opened fire on a man who came at him with a knife, authorities said.
Douglas sheriff’s deputies were called about 9 a.m. when an employee of an emissions inspection station along Fairburn Road heard a “suspicious noise” at the used dealership on the other side of the building, according to the GBI.
“The employee opened an office door and saw a man who made some type of statement about needing a car,” agency spokeswoman Natalie Ammons said in a statement. Authorities said the man had something in his hand, prompting the employee to close the door and call 911.
According to the sheriff’s office, the caller said there was forced entry into Redline Performance Group dealership and gave dispatchers a description of the man they saw breaking into the business.
Two deputies responding to the call noticed a man walking away from the dealership toward I-20, the GBI said. When the man saw the deputies, he turned away from the highway and walked up the driveway of another business, Ammons said.
He then crossed a chain-link fence and walked into the backyard of a home along Skyview Circle, according to the GBI.
“The deputies made contact with the man in the backyard and discovered he was armed with a knife,” the agency said. “One of the deputies attempted to subdue the man by using a Taser, which was ineffective. At the same time, the man advanced towards a second deputy with the knife.”
The second deputy opened fire, striking the man in the backyard of the home, officials said. Deputies administered first aid until paramedics arrived, but the man died on the way to the hospital, authorities said. His name has not been released.
Douglas County Sheriff Tim Pounds “reviewed the incident and stands behind his deputy’s actions 100%,” the sheriff’s office said Thursday in a Facebook post.
The incident near Douglasville was the 52nd police shooting investigated by the GBI this year, roughly on pace with 2020. It was the 29th shooting in 2021 in which someone was killed by law enforcement, records show.
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.
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