A cellphone may have saved an Albany police officer's life early Tuesday morning during a hostage situation.

Officer Willie Hall, 27, was shot, but his cell phone deflected the bullet enough that he wasn't seriously injured, according to a report in the Albany Herald. Hall was shot at around 4 a.m. on Haley Street during a hostage standoff. He was taken to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, where he was discharged a few hours later, police told the newspaper.

Officers were responding to a burglary call at the Dougherty County home in south Georgia when shots were fired. The Albany police department SWAT team was called in. When the house was stormed, officers discovered that the suspects were gone.

Hall's cellphone was severely damaged by the bullet. Authorities are trying to determine if the bullet hit his arm first and then the cellphone.

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Public Service Commission candidate Peter Hubbard gets a hug from Brionté McCorkle, executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters, during an election-night party in Southwest Atlanta on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.  (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC