Age: 48
Work: 22-year veteran of the Fulton County police Department
Education: Briarwood High School in East Point; Morris Brown College, 1989 graduate
Survivors: His parents, four sons, and other family members
In the cover of darkness, shrouded by a dense fog, accused cop killer Amanuel Menghesha took to the normally quiet streets of his south Fulton neighborhood early Wednesday with a high-powered rifle and began firing.
Alfred Printup wasn’t at home, but his wife was. He could hear the barrage of gunfire as he talked to her on the phone.
“We heard about three volleys of rounds going off at different times,” Printup told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He told his wife to hit the floor, stay down and pray.
Outside, 22-year police veteran Detective Terence Green was one of four Fulton County officers responding to a call of shots fired. He would leave in the back of an ambulance, rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital after a bullet struck the back of his head. Green, a Morris Brown graduate and father of four, was pronounced dead early Wednesday morning, the first fatal shooting of a U.S. law enforcement officer this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
“Just a senseless shooting, to kill my brother,” longtime friend Mike Burns told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “This guy was at work, and he was a genuine guy. He’s not that officer that wanted to run around and be a bully. He is not that guy. That’s not his character.”
Fulton police had been called to Menghesha’s home at 7262 Parks Trail before. In November, he was arrested after allegedly assaulting his daughter and choking and threatening to kill his fiancée. He was due in court Monday to answer the charges.
Several residents called 911 reporting gunfire on Wednesday. By the time police arrived, Menghesha had left the home and wandered three blocks away, to Chastain Way, shooting indiscriminately.
“(Menghesha) appeared to go on a rampage,” said Fulton Police Chief Cassandra Jones, adding that investigators believe the gunman was intoxicated.
Residents could hear the bullets but had no idea who was behind it, or why. As they ducked behind locked doors, Green and his fellow officers ventured into the darkness where they were ambushed without warning. Menghesha shot at them as they retreated; besides Green, another officer was struck but escaped injury when the bullet shattered his police radio.
The remaining officers returned fire, wounding Menghesha, who was taken to Grady alert and conscious. He is expected to survive.
Neighbors described Menghesha — who served in the U.S. Army from 1992-94 and was honorably discharged, according to a spokesman with the Georgia Department of Veteran’s Services — as a volatile man. One who lived next door told Channel 2 Action News that Menghesha, 42, had fired his gun in August after a fight with his daughter; a stray bullet hit her house.
The neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, said Menghesha, 42, had started shooting out of anger because his daughter had taken his car without permission.
Two months later, Menghesha’s fiance, Ayanna George, called 911 following an argument the couple had over “previous criminal issues” involving the daughter, according to a Fulton police incident report. Menghesha “grabbed his daughter by the neck and began to strangle her,” the report states, before throwing her to the ground. Police say he also threatened to kill George, choking her with one hand while cocking his .40-caliber handgun.
“He then made comments stating that he had a bullet for (George and his daughter),” the police report states.
Menghesha was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, making terroristic threats and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
“He’s had violent tendencies in the past,” Chief Jones told reporters Wednesday.
Conversely, the man Menghesha is accused of killing was remembered for his genial, caring nature.
“He had the gift of being able to understand life,” longtime friend Carlton Gammage told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Our friend will go down as a hero. Protect and serve, that’s what he was doing. He was protecting and serving.”
Gammage had known Green since the two were freshmen at Briarwood High School in East Point. After graduation, Green went to Morris Brown College, where he studied criminal justice.
He was hired by the Fulton Police Department, the only law enforcement job he ever had, got married and fathered four sons: Marquez, Isaiah, Emmanuel and Samuel. Green later divorced but went to Florida, where his former wife moved, to visit his sons often, his friends said.
Thirty years after graduating, Green and his high school buddies still gathered at the East Point park where they once played pick-up basketball. They were so close they’d often get together for Christmas dinner.
Gammage and Burns said they planned to visit Green’s parents, who still live in East Point, in the coming days. He’s also survived by an older brother.
“I now get it. I get it when they say a ‘fallen solider,’” Gammage said. “We never went to war in my generation. But now, I have a different grasp on going to protect and serve the community that we live in. Our friend was a hero.”
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