Less than an hour after a woman told police a suspect had used a bow and arrow to carjack her in Midtown Atlanta, authorities said the same man was shot by police in Marietta after pointing the weapon at officers who confronted him.
Trent Andrew Emry, 29, of Canton, was taken to a hospital after he was shot by an officer during a standoff on Powder Springs Street in Marietta, according to the GBI.
Officers responded to several calls Tuesday reporting that Emry had threatened people with the bow and with a red fire extinguisher, according to incident reports released by police.
About 6 a.m., a man who had been on his way to work told police he encountered a man with a fire extinguisher standing in the entryway to a parking deck near his building. The man walked up to the other man’s car, lifted the fire extinguisher over his head and threw it at the vehicle, the incident report said.
The suspect then ran off into a construction site on 17th Street.
Less than fifteen minutes later, a woman reported her car was stolen in Midtown, police said. The victim told officers she was in her car in the 1400 block of West Peachtree Street when a man approached her with a bow and arrow and a fire extinguisher.
The man threw the fire extinguisher at the woman’s car and then shot an arrow through her windshield, a police report said. He then demanded that she get out of the car.
“The victim complied and the suspect fled in her 2014 Toyota Camry,” Atlanta police said in a statement.
The suspect got into the woman’s car and drove northbound on West Peachtree Street.
The woman was not injured, but was “shaken up and traumatized,” the police report said.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
While investigating the carjacking, officers learned that a similar incident had happened moments before in the 1600 block of Peachtree Road.
“A male suspect matching the same description and weapon involved attempted to take a vehicle belonging to a security guard working at the location but was unsuccessful,” the police department said.
Officers soon made contact with a third person who said the same suspect tried to take their car but was unsuccessful.
About 7:10 a.m., Marietta police located the stolen Camry after it smashed into the side of a bridge near the Marietta Square, according to department spokesman Officer Chuck McPhilamy. The car had crashed into the bridge support for a CSX rail that passes over South Marietta Parkway, the GBI said.
When police approached the vehicle, “they were presented with an individual with a bow and arrow,” McPhilamy said.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Officers at the scene described the weapon as a compound bow loaded with an arrow, which is typically used for hunting.
The man, later identified as Emry, got out of the passenger side of the wrecked vehicle and pointed the bow at police, the GBI said. An officer responded by giving him “multiple verbal commands to drop the weapon,” McPhilamy said.
“When the commands were not followed, the officer drew their handgun and fired it, striking the suspect one time,” McPhilamy said.
Emry dropped to the ground, still refusing to comply with the officers’ commands, authorities said. Police took a shield to the area so officers could safely get close enough to the man to place him in handcuffs and provide him with medical attention.
Emry was taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, where he was stable, according to the GBI. No officers were injured.
The incident is the 75th shooting involving a law enforcement officer the GBI has been asked to investigate this year. 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.
