A search is ongoing Thursday for a man accused of shooting a DeKalb County police officer multiple times after fatally shooting his girlfriend.
The reward is up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of 27-year-old Otis Walker, who is considered armed and dangerous.
According to DeKalb police, officers were ambushed while responding to a domestic call at a home on Hodgdon Corners Cove in the Stonecrest area. They were “immediately fired upon” by someone hiding between two homes, Maj. Jerry Lewis told Channel 2 Action News from the scene.
A neighbor driving by heard the gunshots and saw the officer, identified by police as three-year veteran Derek Nunn, go down.
“That’s when I put my car in park and was helping that officer,” Cleveland Dollison told the news station. “They laid him down in the neighbor’s yard, (the neighbor) came out, we got towels, and we just tried to help, do what we could.”
Dollison said he helped to apply a tourniquet to the officer’s leg. Nunn had surgery and is recovering at a hospital Thursday afternoon, according to police.
The woman, identified by the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office as 27-year-old Aleka Simmons, was found critically injured when SWAT officers made their way through the home, Lewis said. Simmons died at the scene.
For several hours Thursday morning, a large contingency of police and SWAT officers searched the neighborhood, which is located off Browns Mill Road east of Snapfinger Road. Police believe Walker fled the area on foot.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Since 2015, Walker has been arrested multiple times on charges ranging from aggravated assault to battery, DeKalb County Superior Court records show. He was just released from jail July 13 after a July 11 arrest on a family violence charge, according to records. He has an arraignment hearing scheduled for Oct. 8 in connection with that incident.
The GBI was called to investigate Thursday’s officer-involved shooting, the 47th such investigation the agency has opened in 2019, spokeswoman Nelly Miles 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.
Anyone with information about Walker's whereabouts is asked to call police. Tipsters can remain anonymous by contacting Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-8477, texting information to 274637 or visiting the Crime Stoppers website.
— Please return to AJC.com for updates.
About the Author
