Ga. cop kills carjacker who attacked him

By Mike Morris and David Simpson The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A DeKalb County police officer on his way home from work shot and killed a carjacking suspect who fought the officer after waving him down on I-85 in northeast Atlanta early Thursday, police said. It was the second fatal shooting by a DeKalb officer this year. DeKalb police shot and killed 12 suspects in 2006, sparking a special grand jury investigation. One suspect was killed in 2007. Atlanta and DeKalb police officials said the officer involved in Thursday's shooting was trying to help what appeared to be a distressed pedestrian when he was attacked. Authorities would not identify the officer. They said the slain suspect, who appeared to be in his 30s, was carrying no identification.

The chain of events leading to the shooting began at 12:30 a.m. Thursday when a man carjacked a MARTA employee, stealing a MARTA truck, at the Doraville rail station, Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows said. About 45 minutes later, the carjacker crashed the truck into a bridge support at the Lindbergh Drive exit off I-85 southbound, Meadows said. The man got out of the truck and walked back up the Lindbergh exit onto I-85. Meadows said the DeKalb County police officer "saw him walking down the interstate, waving his arms." The DeKalb officer "tried to intercept him so he wouldn't get hit by a vehicle," Meadows said.

"When the officer got out of his car, the individual charged him," Meadows said. "They got into a physical altercation, and at some point, the individual tried to get inside the officer's patrol car."
The suspect then grabbed the officer's gun, and the two struggled over the weapon, according to Meadows. "The officer ended up discharging the weapon a couple of times, fatally injuring the suspect," he said. DeKalb police spokeswoman Keisha Williams said the DeKalb officer was headed home in a police car after finishing a special operations shift.

The officer was placed on administrative leave, as is customary in such cases, Williams said.
The incident shut down the southbound lanes of the busy interstate for about three hours, but it was reopened in time for the morning commute. DeKalb officers have killed two suspects and wounded one this year, Williams said. Officers fired weapons but injured no one in three other cases. Williams said three of the cases already have been ruled justified by a grand jury and the other three are awaiting review. District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming now submits all police shootings to a grand jury. A special grand jury created to look into the 2006 shootings ruled 11 fatal shootings by DeKalb police were justified. One shooting was ruled unjustified, and a later grand jury issued a murder indictment against former DeKalb Officer Torrey Thompson in that case.

Thompson is free on bond awaiting trial in the death of 21-year-old Lorenzo Matthews on Sept. 12, 2006. Matthews was unarmed and was shot as he fled a robbery scene