A man accused of opening fire on an officer over the weekend was shot and killed by police Wednesday evening during a traffic stop on a busy Cobb County road.
According to the GBI, the shooting happened at 5 p.m. on the Chastain Road bridge over I-75. Officers from the Cobb County Police Department’s Violent Crime Bureau were trying to capture a suspect, later identified as 20-year-old Demarco Mauge of Duluth. According to investigators, Mauge fired shots at an officer near Cumberland Mall on Sunday afternoon.
That day, an officer unsuccessfully tried to stop a black Audi that Mauge was allegedly driving, according to an arrest warrant. He was speeding and weaving around vehicles in the mall parking lot before hitting a curb as pedestrians were present, the warrant states.
According to the warrant, Mauge then pointed a gun at the officer and shot one round that struck the driver’s-side window of the patrol vehicle. He then fled the area, police said.
On Wednesday, police stopped an SUV in which the alleged gunman was riding as a passenger. Officers shot and killed the man after he drew a handgun during the stop, GBI spokesperson Nelly Miles said in a news release.
Mauge, still holding a gun in his hand, was pronounced dead at the scene, Miles said. An autopsy was expected to be performed by the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office.
No officers were injured during the incident Wednesday, which shut down Chastain Road and caused hours of traffic delays. There were multiple officers at the traffic stop who fired their weapons, Cobb police said.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
“We value life and all life,” interim police Chief Stuart VanHoozer told reporters at the scene. “Whether that is the life of a police officer, the life of one of our victims or the life of an offender. And in this case, this is a tragedy for us. This is not how we wanted this to turn out.”
Police did not know if the suspect fired any shots, according to VanHoozer. Photos from the scene showed multiple bullet holes in the SUV’s windshield.
“It was a close call for our officer,” VanHoozer said of the weekend encounter near the mall. “He wasn’t physically wounded, but that’s a tough thing to go through.”
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
Investigators had obtained a warrant for Mauge’s arrest and spent much of the week trying to apprehend him, according to VanHoozer.
When police found him Wednesday, he was one of two people in the vehicle. Its driver was taken to police headquarters for questioning after the shooting, VanHoozer said. It was not clear Thursday if the driver would face charges.
Police did not identify any of the officers involved in the incident, which is the 36th officer-involved shooting the GBI has been tasked with investigating this year. By this time last year, there had been 19.
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.
