A Cherokee County man suspected of violating a restraining order died Sunday, one day after he was shot by sheriff’s deputies outside of a Red Lobster while reaching for a gun, the GBI said.
Cherokee deputies were searching for 67-year-old Mark Allen on Saturday after he was accused of violating a temporary protective order that barred him from his Woodstock home, according to the GBI. The state agency said Allen tried to shoot his way into the house on Meadowbrook Lane, firing multiple rounds at a lock on the front door as his wife and teenage daughter sheltered inside.
Allen’s wife and daughter were not injured, officials said.
Deputies were called to the home for a domestic disturbance around 11 a.m., but Allen was gone by the time they arrived, the GBI said. The sheriff’s office issued a lookout for Allen and he was later found parked in his gray minivan at a Red Lobster on Riverstone Parkway in Canton.
As the deputy who spotted Allen approached him, the suspect reached for his gun, according to Cherokee sheriff’s office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker. The deputy responded by firing at Allen, hitting and seriously injuring him. No law enforcement officers were injured during the incident.
Deputies administered first aid immediately after Allen was shot, and Cherokee firefighters took him to the hospital in critical condition, the GBI said. Allen died from his injuries the following day.
The GBI will conduct an independent investigation at the request of the Cherokee sheriff’s office.
This was the 72nd officer-involved shooting the GBI has been asked to investigate this year. 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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