A Columbus police officer opened fire on three people in a stolen car that was accelerating toward him Monday night, authorities said.
Two of the car’s occupants later showed up at a hospital with gunshot wounds, hours after police found the vehicle abandoned in a Columbus neighborhood. The GBI is investigating the incident as the state’s 10th officer-involved shooting of the year at the request of the Columbus Police Department.
According to GBI officials, a man called 911 shortly after 5 p.m. and told dispatchers he spotted his sister’s car, which was reported stolen Saturday. The caller followed the car to the Riverwind Apartments in southwest Columbus, and two officers later responded to the complex.
The officers parked their patrol vehicles in front of the stolen car. As they were walking toward the car, the driver steered the vehicle in the direction of one of the officers, who fired multiple shots at the car, GBI officials said.
That officer was identified as Anrico Castro in a GBI report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The officers were unsure at the time if anyone in the vehicle had been shot. Police later found the stolen car abandoned at an intersection about three miles north of the apartment complex.
According to preliminary reports, surveillance in the area showed three people running from the vehicle, a GBI spokesperson said in a news release. Three people matching their description arrived together at Piedmont Hospital in Columbus hours later.
Two of them had been shot, one in the arm and the other in the shoulder, the spokesperson said. The wounded men were identified as Jakori Thomas and Elijah Smith, according to the GBI report.
Charges related to the stolen car are pending against the trio, according to Columbus police.
No officers were injured in Monday’s shooting. Columbus police told local media Castro had been placed on administrative leave according to department policy.
The Columbus Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards has also opened an administrative investigation into the incident.
It was the second officer-involved shooting in Columbus in 2022. Tobias Maddox, 39, was shot in the leg when he allegedly fired his gun at an officer during a Jan. 7 pre-dawn police chase, according to the GBI.
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.
Anyone with information about Monday’s shooting is asked to contact the GBI Region 2 field office at 706-565-7888. Tipsters can also call 800-597-8477, submit tips online via the GBI’s tip website, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.
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