David Sturdivant told a 911 operator that Atlanta police officers had shot him in the stomach.
The police incident report notes that at least three officers fired at Sturdivant when he walked out on the balcony of his house with a rifle almost a month ago.
But the Atlanta Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards, also known as internal affairs, has not yet determined if the April 8 incident at Sturdivant’s house was a police shooting.
“The investigation will seek to determine if it was an officer-involved shooting,” APD spokesman Carlos Campos said.
Meanwhile, Sturdivant is being held in the Fulton County Jail on four counts of aggravated assault and one charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He allegedly shot at a man in his yard and moments later pointed his rifle in the direction of the officers who stopped at the house at Collier Drive and Bolton Road when they heard shots.
Sturdivant remains in the Fulton County Jail. His bond is $4,000.
Neighbors on the day of the incident told reporters that thieves frequently targeted the 64-year-old Sturdivant, whose yard around his house and a nearby building is littered with old cars, broken lawn mowers and other equipment.
On that Friday afternoon, he came onto his second-floor balcony naked and armed with a rifle. He shot in the direction of one of two men he believed had come into his yard to steal.
The neighbors said they heard him shout, “Get out of my yard and quit stealing my stuff."
They said the man in the front yard responded by goading Sturdivant, even after Sturdivant shot at him; another man was in the back of the house.
“Atlanta police officers were passing by when they heard the gunshot/s and saw a family of three walking past the front of the house,” one officer wrote in a report. “Sergeant K. Lambert and Officer R. Price stopped and quickly moved the family to safety and gained cover while also establishing sight of the gunman.”
The report said Sturdivant then “pointed the rifle at officers” and all three policemen fired.
Atlanta SWAT offices and hostage negotiators were called to the run-down property west of downtown Atlanta, according to the report.
On the recording of Sturdivant's call to 911, which The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained, helicopters can be heard hovering over Sturdivant’s property.
“Yes, ma’am. I need an ambulance at Bolton and Collier. I’m shot,” Sturdivant said on the recording.
“Some guy tried to rob stuff out of my yard and I took some shots at him,” Sturdivant said. “Next thing I know, here come the police. I’m sitting downstairs waiting for somebody to come get me.”
Sturdivant said he was shot in the stomach.
The 911 operator asks Sturdivant, “Sir, who shot you? The guy that was trying to take the stuff out of your yard?”
“The police,” Sturdivant said.
“The police?” she asks.
“The police,” Sturdivant said again.
Then the operator asks, “Where’s the person that shot you?” and Sturdivant tells her “the police. There was about a half dozen of them.”
A short time later, Sturdivant is taken from his house on a gurney. He spent several days in custody at Grady Memorial Hospital until he was well enough to be taken to the Fulton County Jail.
The officer wrote on the report that there was an outstanding warrant against Sturdivant for failing to appear in court to answer a 2008 citation for carrying a pistol without a license.
He also is now charged with possession of a firearm while in the commission of a crime, which would be the four charges of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
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