A passenger was also arrested, the police said.
Barrow County, Georgia – A man was shot dead after shooting at Barrow County officials Thursday, the county’s sheriff said.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said all MPs and officials involved were unharmed. Auburn Police were also involved in the incident.
Smith said both the sheriff’s office and police were involved in the incident and that the suspect shot both the responding MPs and the officers who returned fire.
In a press release, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the incident began around 5:30 a.m. when a Barrow sheriff’s deputy tried to stop a Ford Fusion in Auburn. The GBI later stated that the driver had run over a stop sign.
“The label was immediately returned to the registered owner, for whom an arrest warrant was issued so that he activated his blue lights. When they did this, the vehicle took off,” said the special agent in charge, Jesse Maddox
Maddox said the short chase came to an end when the car went off the road and encountered a torrent near Browns Bridge Road and Bradford Park Lane. Maddox said the driver didn’t get out but looked outside with a gun.
And when the officers arrived, he threatened to shoot himself if the MPs – and the newly arrived Auburn Police – got closer.
“I thought it was a crash and I came outside and saw them and they said, ‘Take cover,'” said 16-year-old Ethan Mitchell.
Then he ran back to his family home less than a block away. He said he watched from the window for the next 20 to 25 minutes and heard screams where people told the suspect
The GBI reports that the officers gave him several orders to put down his gun, but he said he eventually fired at them. And so, according to the GBI, the officers returned fire and beat him.
The shooter, who was later identified as Steven Jesse Dylan Thompson, 29, of Auburn, Georgia, was pronounced dead in a hospital.
The GBI said a passenger in the car crawled out of the wreck and was taken into custody and treated in a hospital for minor injuries.
The office said a Thompson autopsy was being performed at the GBI Crime Lab in DeKalb County at an unspecified time.
Aerial photos of the crime scene showed an overturned car and a derelict power line. Georgia Power’s outage map shows 274 customers who have been affected by a vehicle accident in the area.
The GBI will act as an outside agency to investigate the shooting and will make its findings available to the District Attorney of the Piedmont Judicial Circuit.
This marks the fourth Atlanta law enforcement shooting this week, including a previous incident that injured a MP and killed a Newton County suspect. A man was found dead in the woods after he was also shot by a Douglasville officer.
The GBI is on the scene of an OIS investigation in Barrow County.
Location: Browns Bridge Road & Bradford Park Lane in Auburn.
We are working on providing updates and will be putting out a press release as soon as we have more. pic.twitter.com/ObmaJ9oNOi
– GA Bureau of Investigation (@GBI_GA) June 24, 2021
