Rewards totaling $35,000 are being offered for critical information that could lead investigators to the people who fired a high-powered gun from a Chrysler LeBaron, mortally wounding a Chattahoochee Hills police officer Monday afternoon.
Police said Tuesday there had been no developments, so they hoped the $30,000 offered by the FBI and private donors and a $5,000 reward put up by Crime Stoppers Atlanta would lead them to the people who killed Lt. Mike Vogt.
The veteran police officer, who joined the department when it was created two years ago, was ambushed while driving down a dirt road near Hutcheson Ferry Road, a sparsely populated area with farms and horse pastures.
Vogt was able to drive in reverse for about 50 yards and call for help before the car came to a stop. Officers and deputies from Chattahoochee Hills, Union City and Palmetto, and Fulton and Coweta counties began arriving at the scene within moments. It was not known if Vogt was able to return fire.
A helicopter rushed Vogt to a hospital soon after the shooting, but he died. Funeral arrangements were still pending Tuesday afternoon.
Chattahoochee Hills police spokeswoman Karen Fricke told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday that there were no new developments and investigators hoped the rewards would lead them to the 1984 two-tone brown Chrysler and the two or three men seen inside. Police also suspect a blue pickup truck with a ladder in the back may have been involved as well.
"Mike was a 20-year veteran in police work, one of the first full-time officers [for Chattahoochee Hills] and one of the first to hold rank in our young department," Chief Damon Jones said in a written statement. "In a small city, to lose one of our own is extremely close to home."
Flags were at half staff Tuesday at the Chattahoochee Hills police station and a fire station. There was little activity at the scene of the shooting, a road that runs through a rural area in south Fulton County where the houses are hundreds of yards apart. A lone Chattahoochee Hills police car drove by the scene Tuesday morning.
On the road, however, was a grim reminder of Monday's crime -- two large blood stains about 30 yards apart.
Vogt had spent some two decades in law enforcement with various agencies around south Fulton, said Col. Jeff Holmes of the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, and he was a reserve officer for the Union City police before he took the position with Chattahoochee Hills, Holmes said.
"It's obvious from the emotions at the scene that a lot of people from the responding departments knew him," Holmes said. "We will be turning up the heat and trying to find the perpetrators of this horrific crime."
Before becoming a full-time police officer, Vogt worked as an investigator for USF&G, an insurance company. During his years as a Union City reservist, he did investigations. He was with Union City as far back as 1990, when George Louth, now the Union City police spokesman, joined the department.
“He was very personable and a good investigator and good interviewer,” Louth said. “He was a very advanced officer.”
Vogt's company was downsizing in 2007 when the Chattahoochee Hills Police Department was being formed. He was among the first hires at the fledgling department, Louth said.
Vogt rose in the 14-person department, recently reaching the rank of lieutenant. He still patrolled the mostly rural city and knew most of its people, Louth said.
“All of us are kind of a close-knit community,” Louth said. “I’m sure this shook [Chief Jones] real, real bad. We all know each other and have worked together for umpteen years.”
Anyone with information should call the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's tip line at 1-800-597-8477 or Atlanta Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477.
-- Staff writers April Hunt and Ty Tagami and staff photographer John Spink contributed to this article.
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