The GBI is investigating after a man was shot and killed Friday afternoon by an Atlanta police officer who was attempting to serve a murder warrant in Fairburn, authorities said.
The shooting took place at a home in the 7100 block of Hania Drive, Atlanta police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said during a news conference Friday afternoon. Hampton said the man was wanted in a gang-related shooting in the Carey Park neighborhood that happened in late March.
The GBI on Saturday identified the suspect as Chase McDermott, a 22-year-old man who turned himself in last month on multiple gang-related charges, as well as one count each of obstruction and making false statements. He was released March 31 on bond of more than $200,000, online jail records show.
Officers from the South Fulton Police Department were supporting members of the Atlanta police fugitive unit in serving the warrant. Atlanta police verified that the suspect was inside and entered the home just after noon, Hampton said.
Hampton said during the news conference that the fugitive was armed and “shots were exchanged.” In a police statement issued later Friday, authorities only said he was armed with a handgun and “shots were fired by a member of the Atlanta Police Department’s Fugitive Unit.”
According to the GBI, which has been asked to investigate the shooting, McDermott refused to exit the home when officers showed up. He was shot when police encountered him in an upstairs bathroom.
The GBI said officers and paramedics provided medical care following the shooting, but McDermott died at the scene. No officers were injured.
A GBI spokesperson said a handgun was recovered from the scene. The state agency has investigated 43 officer-involved shootings so far this year.
The arrest warrant for murder was issued April 20, nearly a month after Jacob Weaver was found dead March 23 at the corner of Seventh Street and Etheridge Drive near the Etheridge Court Apartments in the Carey Park neighborhood.
Investigators determined the killing was gang-related after the body was found in a wooded area, police said, and two suspects were soon identified. Both were charged with felony murder and two counts of participation in criminal gang activity, but their names had not been released to the public.
Harold McDermott, the suspect’s father, told Channel 2 Action News he was sitting on his deck Friday when several officers surrounded his home. They asked for his son, so he said he tried to go inside.
“They waved me back, and then when I turned around, I heard two gunshots and they killed my son,” he 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.
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