According to details in public information releases from the Powder Springs Police Department and the GBI, a 34-year-old Acworth man was fatally shot by Powder Springs police who were responding to a mental health crisis call Tuesday at around 9 p.m. The incident took place on New Macland Road.
According to the Powder Springs public information release:
Officers arrived on scene and made contact with the individual. Preliminary information indicates that during the encounter, at approximately 10:00 p.m., the individual produced a weapon. Officers discharged their firearms, striking the suspect.
No officers were injured during the incident.
Officers on scene immediately rendered medical aid to the individual until paramedics arrived. The suspect was transported to a local hospital, where the individual later succumbed to their injuries. The identity of the suspect is being withheld, pending notification of the next of kin.
The investigation has been turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office.
The GBI’s role in officer-involved shootings
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation routinely investigates the shooting of individuals by police officers, as well as any time an officer discharges a firearm while on duty, at the request of the police agency involved in the shooting.
Natalie Ammons, the Deputy Director of the GBI’s Office of Public Affairs, explained to us how the system works.
Police agencies are not required to request outside investigation of officer-involved shootings, and there is no formal agreement between the GBI and local police departments.
But police agencies make the request so that an independent agency does the investigation in an incident involving their own officers.
The investigations are carried out by Special Agents in a regional office within the area where the police agency is located. Cobb County, and much of the rest of metro Atlanta, is in the GBI’s Region 10, based in Conyers.
In Region 10, officer involved shootings and corruption investigations are the primary investigations Special Agents do, while in more rural areas with fewer police resources the agents handle a wider range of criminal investigations.
There is no special unit or division that conducts the investigation of officer involved shootings.
The announcements of the investigations can be found at the GBI’s press release web page.