Investigators don’t know what was going on inside a DeKalb County apartment early Friday. But when two men came outside with an AK-47 and started shooting at two police officers, the officers fired back. That shootout, in which both officer and both suspects were wounded, was just the beginning.
It would take four hours before police would locate one of the suspected gunmen, who was injured by gunfire but able to escape. By the time he was captured, the massive manhunt had caused major traffic backups during the morning commute and prompted lockdowns at six schools in the Glenwood Road area.
Two officers and two suspects were all injured in the shootout, with one of the suspects was critically injured, according to police. The officers both sustained non-life threatening injuries when they were shot while responding to a reported home invasion, police said.
Officers Tony Luong, 26, and Devon Perry, 29, were approaching an apartment in the Colony Ridge complex on Glenwood Road when two men with guns came out and started shooting, according to DeKalb police Chief Cedric Alexander. The two suspects had at least one fully automatic AK-47, Alexander said.
Luong was shot in the thigh and Perry in the calf, according to police. But a 39-year-old alleged gunman, whose name was not released, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in critical condition, Alexander said. That suspect was undergoing surgery early Friday afternoon.
Around 6:45 a.m., the two DeKalb officers were among several that were sent to the Colony Ridge Apartments near Glenwood Road and Austin Drive on a report of a home invasion and robbery, Capt. Stephen Fore said.
“They were immediately fired upon and two of the officers were struck,” Fore said. “They were able to return fire and strike one of the suspects.”
The injured officers were taken to Atlanta Medical Center, where Luong underwent surgery later Friday morning. By then, the search was on to find the 27-year-old man who ran after allegedly firing shots at the officers.
DeKalb officers, sheriff’s deputies, state troopers and Atlanta officers joined in the search for the suspect, combing nearby neighborhoods. The search prompted police to temporarily close all lanes of I-285 southbound at Glenwood Road, leading to traffic delays. Several blocks of Glenwood Road just west of I-285 were shut down, as well as the intersection of Glenwood Road and Austin Drive.
As students were arriving, six nearby schools were placed on lockdown. Lockdowns were in place at Towers and Columbia high schools, Canby Lane and Snapfinger elementary schools, the DeKalb Preparatory Academy and Wadsworth Magnet.
While searching for the man accused of shooting at the two officers, DeKalb police were called to the scene of a second shooting about two miles away on Wesley Chapel Road, where D’Monte Brown, 25, was shot while walking through a wooded area to catch his usual ride to work. Investigators later determined the two shootings were not related, despite their proximity and timing.
Around 11 a.m., the suspect wounded at the apartment complex was located in a nearby cemetery, according to police. A Doraville police officer and K-9 tracked the suspect to a wooded area, where he was found bleeding from being shot and and from being bitten by other police dogs.
The school lockdowns were lifted after the suspect was in police custody.
Staff writer Chris Joyner contributed to this article.
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