Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — A Henry County officer shot and killed a hammer-wielding man Sunday night at a home in Stockbridge, police said.
Henry County police Capt. Jason Bolton said the officer was on a traffic stop on Ruth Circle about 11 p.m. “when he heard a commotion coming from an adjacent street.”
After completing the traffic stop, the officer went to that street, Frances Lane, to determine the source of the shouting, Bolton said.
“He located the residence in question and made contact with a male subject at the door of the residence,” Bolton said.
Bolton said the man, who was alone in the mobile home, was “yelling all sorts of crazy things, and the officer didn’t know quite what to make of it, so he was just trying to find out what this was all about to see if he needed to render aid or assistance to somebody.”
When the man met the officer in the doorway, he had a stick in one hand, and his other hand was inside the door.
Bolton said the man complied when the officer told him to drop the stick, then came out and attacked the officer with a hammer in his other hand, striking the officer in the neck.
The officer then fired his weapon, fatally wounding the man.
The officer sustained only minor injuries from the blow to his neck, Bolton said.
The identity of the dead man, who was in his 30s, was being withheld until relatives could be notified.
Bolton said the GBI was called in to investigate the shooting, normal procedure in officer-involved shootings.
Copyright 2009 Atlanta Journal-Constitution