The Monroe Police Department has asked the GBI to investigate after a search of a mobile home ended in gunfire Friday afternoon.
Officers had just entered the home in the Skyview Estates trailer park on Towler Street when they were met by a man with a gun, according to the GBI. Daniel Hernandez, 21, pointed the weapon at the officers, the state agency said.
“One officer fired his weapon, but no one was struck,” Special Agent Jesse Maddox said in a news release. “Hernandez surrendered to officers. No officers were injured during the incident.”
It was the 77th officer-involved shooting the GBI was asked to investigate this year. Before the weekend was over, the GBI opened two more cases following the deaths of 29-year-old Ramone Dwight in Evans County and Alamo police Officer Dylan Harrison in Wheeler County.
Dwight was killed Friday night when officers opened fire at the end of a police chase through Claxton that topped speeds of 100 mph, according to GBI Special Agent Chris DeMarco. The pursuit began after Dwight sped away from a highway checkpoint and ended when he lost control of his Kia Rio and made a run for it, DeMarco said.
Dwight was accused of firing multiple rounds at officers during the vehicle and foot chases.
“An Evans County Sheriff’s Office deputy and a Hagan Police Department officer fired their weapons as Dwight was shooting and pointing a weapon in the direction of several officers,” the special agent said in a news release. “Both officers discharged their guns, striking Dwight.”
Early Saturday morning, Harrison was shot and killed as he exited the Alamo police station at the end of his first shift. Authorities have accused Damien Anthony Ferguson of killing the officer in retaliation for the arrest of another man hours earlier.
Ferguson was arrested Sunday at his home in Alamo at the conclusion of a statewide manhunt. He is being held at the Laurens County Jail in Dublin on charges of murder and aggravated stalking related to a previous domestic incident, according to a GBI spokeswoman.
Harrison was recently married and had a 6-month-old son, officials said. Relatives created a GoFundMe account for his widow and child “so that this family who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect each and every one of us can go to sleep peacefully knowing that they will have financial stability to begin to put shattered pieces of a life without Dylan back together.”
He was the first officer from the Alamo Police Department killed in the line of duty and the fifth Georgia officer killed this year. At least 25 officers have died of COVID-19 or other medical conditions in the line of duty in 2021, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
Dwight’s shooting is considered the 78th officer-involved shooting case the GBI has opened this year. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also tracks officer-involved shootings that don’t involve the GBI, and those numbers sometimes differ from the GBI’s tally.
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