One man was critically wounded early Friday in a shootout with off-duty police officers who were trying to break up a large fight in a Midtown parking lot, authorities said.
Atlanta police Major Darryl Tolleson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that around 3 a.m., two off-duty Atlanta officers working in uniform at Club Opera “were alerted to a large group fight just off 13th Street at Crescent Avenue.”
Tolleson said the officers went to the parking lot and confronted those in the fight.
“While doing that, one of the individuals in the group produced a handgun,” Tolleson said.
“Witnesses are telling us that both officers gave several verbal commands for him to drop that weapon, and he did not comply with their commands so shots were fired,” the major said. “The individual with the handgun was struck, we don’t know how many times at this point.”
Tolleson said the wounded man was in surgery at Grady memorial Hospital. “We’re told his injuries are critical,” he said.
The officers were not injured. They were placed on administrative leave, which is normal procedure when an officer is involved in a shooting.
Police recovered a handgun at the scene that belonged to the wounded man, Tolleson said.
The wounded man, identified as 30-year-old Ernest Barnett, has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, Atanta police spokesman John Chafee said Saturday.
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