A traffic stop in Hall County ended in gunfire Tuesday morning after a man rammed a patrol car, authorities said.
A deputy opened fire on the driver and hit the man in the arm, according to the Hall County Sheriff’s Office. No deputies were injured in the incident.
Two deputies first made contact with the man on Mill Street near Athens Street in Gainesville, sheriff’s spokesman Derreck Booth said. They pulled over his vehicle about 1:10 a.m. for a broken tail light. The GBI identified the driver as Marvin Tard Jr., 47, of Stone Mountain.
During the traffic stop, Tard put his vehicle in reverse and accelerated rapidly, striking the patrol car before attempting to drive away, the GBI said in a news release. As Tard’s vehicle was moving, a deputy shot at the car, striking him in his upper arm.
The suspect drove a short distance before crashing into a utility pole on Mill Street near McDonald Street, the GBI said. Tard was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center before being booked into the Hall County Jail, where he remains without bond.
He faces two counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer and a count of cocaine possession, possession of drug-related objects, fleeing police and a tail light violation, the sheriff’s office said. The Georgia State Patrol has also charged him with several traffic-related citations, including DUI.
AJC.com has reached out to the sheriff’s office to request his booking photo.
Gainesville police and state troopers also assisted at the scene.
It is the second officer-involved shooting the GBI has investigated in 2020, according to GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles.
The first occurred Saturday in South Georgia. Henry Isaac Jones, 47, was fatally shot by police officers after authorities said he shot and killed another man without provocation in Bainbridge. The victim, 57-year-old Stuffon Sanders, was carrying a fishing pole and simply passed Jones in the street, the agency said in a news release.
RELATED: GBI: Officers shoot, kill suspect after unprovoked shooting in South Georgia
In 2019, the GBI was requested to investigate 84 such shootings.
The two deputies involved in Tuesday morning’s shooting have been placed on administrative leave, the Hall agency said.
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