South Georgia deputies shot and killed a man armed with a butcher’s knife Friday afternoon while trying to arrest him at an apartment complex, authorities said.
The GBI said the shooting occurred at a complex on St. Augustine Road in Valdosta when 43-year-old Raymond Whitfield Tarbox II lunged at Lowndes County deputies while wielding the knife.
“Deputies were attempting to serve a court pickup order when the incident occurred,” the GBI said in a news release.
Tarbox became combative as deputies tried taking him into custody, authorities said. As he resisted the deputies, they tried to use a Taser to subdue him, but the device was ineffective, the GBI said.
“At some point during the incident, the man lunged toward the deputies with the knife,” the GBI said in its release.
One of the deputies fired his weapon at the man, hitting and fatally injuring him. Tarbox was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was taken to the state medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.
Friday’s incident was the 15th police shooting the GBI has investigated this year and the fourth that resulted in a fatality, authorities 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.
— Please return to AJC.com for updates.
About the Author
