The country’s hot, tense summer between police and citizens erupted into more violence this weekend as two Georgia officers were shot — one fatally — during separate incidents just hours apart.
Two teenagers were arrested in connection with the shooting of a Marietta police officer early Sunday morning as the officer responded to a call about people breaking into cars outside an apartment complex on Franklin Road. The officer is expected to recover from the shot to his leg.
In a separate incident in Middle Georgia, Eastman police Officer Tim Smith was killed Saturday night as he answered a call of a suspicious person. Late Sunday, police were still searching for his killer who shot Smith near Main Street in Eastman, about 55 miles southeast of Macon.
Police are still looking for 24-year-old Royheem Delshawn Deeds for shooting Smith, 30, during an encounter.
“He is considered armed and dangerous and citizens are asked to call authorities if they spot him,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman Scott Dutton.
Smith was answering the call around 9:30 p.m. when he spotted a man on foot in the area who matched the suspect’s description. Smith exited his patrol vehicle and the incident quickly turned violent, according to the GBI.
Deeds shot Smith once and the officer returned fire, according to police. It’s unclear if Deeds was struck by a bullet, but investigators believe he fled on foot. Smith, who is the father of three children, was taken to a hospital in the area where he died.
Investigators did not release where Smith was wounded, but GBI spokesman Dutton confirmed that the officer was not wearing a protective vest. Monday would have been Smith’s 31st birthday. The Eastman department is a small force of about a dozen officers serving the town of 5,440 people that is the county seat of Dodge County.
His father, Lewis Smith, is an officer with the Glenwood police department, in neighboring Wheeler County.
The GBI is offering a $10,000 Reward to anyone with information that leads to locating Deeds. The public is asked to contact the GBI office at (478) 374-6988 with any information regarding his whereabouts.
Smith is the second officer in Georgia to be fatally shot in the line of duty this year. Riverdale Police Maj. Greg Barney was killed in February as he assisted police in Clayton County with a drug raid. Barney, a 25-year veteran of the force, was helping serve as backup for the Clayton County Police Department’s narcotics unit as it issued a no-knock warrant.
When a suspect fled out the back door, he encountered Barney who was not wearing a bulletproof vest when he was shot.
The deaths in Georgia are part of a rise this year in officers’ shooting-related deaths across the country. Smith’s death comes just five weeks after a gunman killed five officers in Dallas in an ambush on July 7. Just 10 days later, a gunman attacked officers in Baton Rouge, killing three.
Officers shot to death on duty are up 67 percent this year, according to the latest data gathered by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. The site's latest count showed 35 officers killed in shooting deaths so far this year versus 21 officers killed for the same period last year. CNN on Sunday reported there have been 38 officers shot dead on duty this year.
In Marietta, Officer Davis, a 10-year veteran of the force, was out of surgery Sunday morning and recovering. Police have not released the names of the two juveniles — both 15 — who were arrested in his shooting.
Davis and two other Marietta officers were responding to a car break-in call outside The Gallery Apartments when two suspects were spotted in a car in the area at 4:24 a.m. After police approached the car, someone inside started firing at the officers, who then returned fire, according to Marietta police spokeswoman Kelah Wallace said.
Wallace said one of the juveniles was struck by a bullet.
Police later determined at least one of two guns recovered at the scene was stolen, Wallace said.
Davis and the two other officers involved in the shooting will be placed on administrative leave per policy
standards, Wallace said.
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