Gwinnett to honor officer killed on duty at Memorial Day ceremony

Gwinnett officials will honor Officer Antwan Toney at the county’s annual Memorial Day ceremony.

Toney was shot and killed by a suspect while on duty as a Gwinnett County police officer on Oct. 20, 2018. He was responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle near Shiloh Middle School when he was shot by one of the men in the car. The suspect, 18-year-old Tafahree Maynard, was killed by police two days later, after he was located in Snellville and refused to put down a lawnmower blade as he approached officers, according to police. The alleged driver of the car, 19-year-old Isaiah Pretlow, was charged with aggravated assault in connection with Toney’s death.

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Toney was less than a week from his third anniversary with the department when he was killed, and had just celebrated his 30th birthday. He had long dreamed of becoming a police officer, family said, and moved from California to Georgia to fulfill that goal. Chief Butch Ayers described Toney as a “bright shining star” within the department.

The county’s annual Memorial Day ceremony regularly honors military members and law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. This year’s ceremony will feature Toney, the Gwinnett County Police Department’s first on-duty death since 1993, when Officer James Christopher Magill, Sr. was struck and killed by a drunk driver on Interstate 85.

The keynote address at Monday’s ceremony will be given by retired U.S. Army Col. Steve Pitt, who is the commandant of cadets at Georgia Military College’s Milledgeville campus. Gwinnett County Commissioner Jace Brooks and Gwinnett County Administrator Glenn Stephens will also speak, and public safety honor guards will participate in the ceremony.

The event is open to the public and begins at 1 p.m. at the Gwinnett Fallen Heroes Memorial, which shares a parking lot with the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center. The address is 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville.

The ceremony will also be broadcast and streamed on TV Gwinnett, the county's public access cable station. You can access the stream online at tvgwinnett.com.

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