During a standoff that lasted more than an hour, Athens-Clarke County police officers asked Timothy Daniel Statham to show his hands 17 times, according to video footage released late Friday.
But the 37-year-old refused, despite officers’ pleas for him to surrender. Instead, the Winterville man indicated he had a gun.
“I’ve got a lot more rounds than every one of y’all,” Statham is heard on the video telling officers.
An officer attempted to use a less-lethal projectile to subdue Statham during the Feb. 18 incident in the woods along Newton Bridge Road. But officers eventually fired shots when Statham refused to comply with their commands.
Officers attempted live-saving measures, but Statham died at the scene. The officers who fired shots were identified as Sgt. Tim Johnson, Officer First Class Dustin Tilley and Officer Jerold Rogers.
Credit: Athens police
Credit: Athens police
The incident began when a 911 caller reported seeing a stolen truck at a McDonald’s on U.S. 29, according to Athens police. Officers located the white Nissan Titan and attempted a traffic stop, but the driver, later identified as Statham, refused to stop.
In order to avoid a high-speed pursuit, officers ahead of the truck placed “stop sticks” in the road to flatten the tires, according to the video. When the pickup’s tires deflated, Statham drove off the road, crashed and ran into the woods.
As officers surrounded him, Statham asked them to “give him a minute” when he was asked to show hands, the video showed.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” an officer is heard telling Statham, who had felony warrants out of Jackson and Barrow counties. “All we want to do is keep you safe.”
The GBI was called in to handle the investigation into the officer-involved shooting. It was determined that Statham did not have a gun.
The shooting was the ninth officer-involved shooting the GBI has been asked to investigate this year. Once the investigation is completed, the findings will be turned over to the district attorney, the agency said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also tracks officer-involved shootings that don’t involve the GBI, and those numbers sometimes differ from the GBI’s tally.
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