A North Carolina man who was involved in a traffic incident Thursday afternoon with a northeast Georgia sheriff’s deputy is accused of attacking the patrol car with a hatchet, leading the deputy to shoot him, according to the GBI.
Eric Edward Webb, 43, of Franklin, North Carolina, was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after he was shot by a Banks County deputy, the GBI said. The deputy was not injured.
The incident took place on U.S. 441 at Shady Grove Road, between the towns of Homer and Hollingsworth, the Banks sheriff’s office said. According to the GBI, Webb was speeding north in a truck towing a small trailer when he passed the deputy, who was driving an unmarked SUV.
As the truck passed the SUV, the deputy flashed his emergency lights at it, the GBI said. When the lights flashed, the truck swerved into the SUV’s lane. Though the vehicles did not hit each other, both left the highway and came to a stop on a grassy embankment.
Once both vehicles had stopped, Webb got out of his truck carrying a hatchet and approached the deputy’s SUV, the GBI said. Webb began beating on the driver’s window with the hatchet, according to the GBI, ultimately breaking through the glass. While still sitting in his SUV, the deputy pulled his gun and shot Webb multiple times.
This is the 39th officer-involved shooting the GBI has been asked to investigate this year and one of two such shootings that took place Thursday in the state.
Early Thursday morning in South Georgia, Thomasville police attempted to pull over a van that did not have a license plate, the GBI said in a separate news release. The van sped away from the traffic stop and was later found abandoned after Thomas County deputies joined the search. Officers from both agencies searched the area and found 18-year-old Harold Alexander Jr., of Houston, Texas, hiding under a house.
As officers chased Alexander from under the house, the GBI said the teenager fired multiple gunshots at pursuing officers, who returned fire. Alexander was hit in the hand, but continued fleeing and was able to hide for hours before he was found in a shed, according to the GBI. Alexander was arrested and taken to the hospital before being booked into the Thomas County Jail on multiple charges, the GBI said.
The GBI is investigating both shootings at the request of the local agencies involved. 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.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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