Eight Forsyth County deputies have been suspended with pay until the use of deadly force investigation is completed but they are expected to be back at work this week, days after Forsyth deputies shot and killed a man apparently intent on taking hostages and killing people at the courthouse.
As the Forsyth County Courthouse reopened Monday, many other deputies went to the range Monday to train on the “very scenario” that played out at the courthouse Friday morning, according to Sheriff’s Office Maj. Rick Doyle.
Dennis Marx, armed and wearing two bullet-proof vests and a gas mask, sped up the front walkway of the Forsyth County Courthouse, firing an AR 15 at deputy Daniel Rush as he was doing a routine sweep of the grounds.
Marx was killed by some of the eight deputies who responded and fired on him. On Monday Rush had his second surgery to repair a fractured tibia and fibula, Doyle said.
The suspensions with pay are routine in officer involved shootings.
“They will go through psyche evaluations and we’ll get their statements,” Doyle said. “We hope they will be cleared by the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday).”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the use of force but that investigation will take longer, Doyle said.
The GBI said in news release that Marx “died as the result of multiple gunshot wounds” but the GBI did not provide any other details, such as how many times he was shot.
Monday was spent tying up lose ends.
The threats to local law enforcement that popped up on the internet in the hours after the shooting have been investigated and found to be harmless, Doyle said.
“It was just sympathizers getting on Facebook, people who hate cops,” Doyle said. “We’ve tracked them down and we’re not worried about them.”
Marx’s house has been cleared of explosives though Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office officials declined to say what they found.
Marx was to have been in court Friday morning to enter an expected guilty plea to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm while in the commission of a felony.
According to Forsyth Sheriff Duane Piper, Marx intended to ram a rented Nissan Nissan Armada into the building and then to attach bombs to hostages.
A long-time friend said Marx had lost most of his savings and his ability to work in the three years since his arrest on the drug charge. That friend of 30 years, Wayne Crisci, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Marx had become increasingly desperate and had started selling his possessions.
“He had lost just about everything, ” Crisci said. “There’s some fragile people out there who just can’t deal with it when their whole world caves in. What he did was crazy —- there’s no defending it. But that arrest absolutely drove him over the edge.”
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