A Marietta man pleaded guilty Tuesday to shooting a Cobb County police officer in 2013.
He was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison.
“We do not enter this plea lightly,” Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Jesse Evans said, according to a news release. “But for the grace of God and that (bulletproof) vest, this would be a murder.”
According to the district attorney’s office, Officer Danny Rogers was patrolling Smyrna’s Concord Chase apartment complex in the early morning hours of July 12, 2013, as part of an increased police presence following the theft of an assault rifle from a Cobb police vehicle. Rogers radioed in that he was “investigating a suspicious person hiding near one of the buildings” — a man later identified as 20-year-old Shymel Tquan Young.
Young ran and Rogers followed, officials said.
Rogers was "almost close enough to touch the suspect" when Young fired a single shot at him, piercing the shock plate of his bulletproof vest. Young escaped but was apprehended about six months later.
Young pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on Tuesday, with jury selection for his trial already underway. Cobb County Superior Court Judge A. Gregory Poole sentenced him to 12 years in prison followed by eight years on probation.
Rogers, who has left Cobb County police since the shooting, was in court Tuesday and “pleased” with the plea, the district attorney’s office said.
Cobb County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Kimberly Isaza told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the AR-15 assault rifle that authorities were searching for was never recovered, and that no one has been charged in its theft.
“However,” Isaza said, “the cleaning kit for the AR-15 was found in the woods near where Officer Rogers was shot.”
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