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Video: Ga. officer fatally shoots man who swung knife at him

The officer repeatedly warned a man, who was swinging a knife at the LEO, to “stop moving” before the suspect was fatally shot

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By Liz Fabian
The Macon Telegraph

CLAYTON, Ga. — A Clayton police officer repeatedly warned a man to “stop moving” before the suspect was fatally shot early Thursday.

Late Friday, the Clayton Police Department in Rabun County in northeast Georgia released a dashcam recording of the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Brett Dontae Bush, of Lithonia.

The eight and a half-minute graphic video shows the officer trying to pull over a Honda Accord for speeding on U.S. 441 South in Clayton.

The driver sped off, turning onto Rickman Road before crashing on a dirt driveway on Warwoman Road.

The officer gets out of the patrol car and tells Bush to “stay in the car” and “do not move!”

The officer radios in: “He’s trying to break the glass and get out. I don’t know if he has anything. I can’t see him.”

Bush then gets out through the back window, runs across the top of the car and jumps toward the officer who told him nine times to stop.

The video shows what officers say was a knife in his hand.

“Stay right there. Stop or I’ll shoot you,” he yells, as Bush appears to slash around with the knife.

“I don’t give a ....,” Bush says as he continues to charge toward the officer.

Three shots are fired and Bush falls in front of the officer’s patrol car.

The policeman radios to report “Shots fired. Shots fired,” before again telling the man to stay down.

The officer had his gun drawn as help arrives.

“Just one. He came after me with a knife. I shot him. He’s hit,” the officer says.

Once another officer pulls a gun on the suspect, the officer who shot him begins to render aid.

He performed CPR on the victim, who he believed was hit in the right side of the chest and arm.

“Hang in there,” he tells Bush before asking other officers for his medical bag from the trunk.

The man died at the scene.

His body was sent to the GBI Crime Lab for an autopsy Friday.

The officer is currently on administrative leave.

The GBI is investigating the fatal shooting and will turn its findings to the Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney for review.

©2018 The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga.)