The man accused of shooting and killing a veteran Fulton County police officer has been charged with murder and aggravated assault, police said Thursday.
Amanuel Menghesha, 42, of Fairburn, allegedly shot Detective Terence Avery Green in the back of the head early Wednesday as several officers responded to a report of shots being fired, according to police. Green, 48, died from his injuries.
Menghesha was also shot, possibly by a Fulton deputy that was assisting officers, police said. Arrest warrants were obtained for Menghesha later Wednesday while he was being treated at Grady Memorial Hospital. He was also charged with possession of a firearm during a felony, Detective Melissa Parker said.
Menghesha was in stable condition Thursday afternoon at Grady. Witnesses, including other officers, were being interviewed Thursday about the fatal shooting, Parker said.
Fulton police had been called before to Menghesha’s home in the 7000 block of Parks Trail. In November, he was arrested after allegedly assaulting his daughter and choking and threatening to kill his fiancée. He was due in court Monday to answer the charges.
Several residents called 911 reporting gunfire early Wednesday. By the time police arrived, Menghesha had left the home and wandered three blocks away, to Chastain Way, shooting indiscriminately, Fulton police Chief Cassandra Jones said. Investigators believe Menghesha was intoxicated.
Green, a 22-year veteran of the department, was well known in the community where he worked. The father of four attended high school in East Point and Morris Brown College before becoming an officer.
His close-knit group of friends called him a hero for protecting and serving the community.
“He had the gift of being able to understand life,” longtime friend Carlton Gammage told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Our friend will go down as a hero. Protect and serve, that’s what he was doing. He was protecting and serving.”
Funeral arrangements had not been announced Thursday afternoon for Green.
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