A man was shot by two off-duty DeKalb County police officers early Saturday after firing at them during a traffic stop, authorities said.
The officers were working security at the Economy Hotel on Glenfair Road in Decatur about 12:30 a.m. when a man with an “obviously counterfeit” license plate drove through the parking lot at a high rate of speed, according to officials.
The officers stopped the driver, who produced a handgun and fired several rounds at them, the GBI said in a statement.
The officers returned fire, striking the driver.
Neither officer was hit by gunfire, though one sustained a “minor injury” during the encounter, the GBI said.
“The suspect discharged his firearm several times,” DeKalb police Chief James Conroy told Channel 2 Action News at the scene. “We did recover a handgun and several shell casings from that handgun at the scene.”
The suspect, identified Monday as Jakil Kquame Gray, 25, of Atlanta, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he is stable.
Police later learned that the vehicle he was driving was reported stolen in Atlanta earlier this month, the GBI said.
It is the 30th officer-involved shooting the GBI has investigated this year. The DeKalb officers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, Conroy said.
Officer-involved shootings in 2019
The shooting is the 29th of 2019, according to the GBI, which investigates most officer involved shootings. 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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