When Paulding County sheriff’s deputies walked into a woman’s home Thursday morning to perform a wellness check on her son, they didn’t expect to face gunfire.
The deputies fatally shot the man, who reportedly was having a mental health episode, in a home near Dallas after he fired at them from his bed, injuring a deputy, officials said.
Authorities were responding to the call just before 7 a.m. at a house on Hemlock Glen in the Brooke Valley neighborhood when 22-year-old Jameel Johnson fired at them, said Jordan Yuodis, a sheriff’s office spokesperson. Deputies returned fire, killing Johnson.
Brice Mattick, the 24-year-old injured deputy, has worked for the sheriff’s office for four years. He was struck in the shoulder and is expected to fully recover. He was taken to the hospital, where he was “awake and talking,” after the shooting, Yuodis said.
By early Thursday evening, the sheriff’s office said Mattick was on his way home.
Credit: Georgia Peace Officer Standards & Training Council
Credit: Georgia Peace Officer Standards & Training Council
Officials said Johnson’s mother, who lives in the home, had spoken with someone at her job “to explain to them some things that the son was doing, the way he was acting.” Her employer then called 911 to initiate the wellness check. They believed the woman’s life might have been in danger, Yuodis said.
“The employer knew there were guns inside the house, so out of the safety of the female, the mom, they called us,” he said.
Four deputies responded to the home and met the woman, who allowed them to enter. She led them to her son’s room, where he was lying in bed.
Before the deputies entered the room, Johnson’s mother had taken a rifle away from him, according to the GBI. But Johnson also had a handgun.
When deputies entered, he began shooting and struck Mattick, after which they returned fire, Yuodis confirmed. Officials said they believe he knew law enforcement was there and he “was prepared.”
“Our deputies respond to welfare checks daily, sometimes multiple times a day, and this was not expected, by any stretch of the imagination,” he added.
Sheriff Ashley Henson said Johnson was “having a mental health episode.”
“When they got in the room, and the suspect brandished that gun and fired at the deputies, they had no choice but to fire back,” Henson said in a social media video. “We’ve offered our condolences to that family, but we’re so prayerful and thankful that Deputy Mattick is OK.”
Credit: Paulding County Sheriff’s Office
Credit: Paulding County Sheriff’s Office
The man’s mother and another woman in the home were not injured and are cooperating with authorities.
The sheriff’s office said the deputies involved will be on administrative leave until the state agency’s investigation is complete.
Thursday’s shootout marked the state’s 20th officer-involved shooting investigated by the GBI this year.
Last year, Paulding Deputy Brandon Cunningham was shot and killed while responding to a domestic dispute call. He was the first Paulding deputy killed in the line of duty since the department was founded in 1834.
“We lost a deputy eight months ago who was shot and killed in line of duty, and some of those officers that were here today were there that day,” Yuodis said.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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