A teenager in southeast Georgia was hospitalized Sunday after she was shot by a state trooper as she fled a scene where shots had been fired, state authorities said.
A Georgia State Patrol officer shot Taliyah Williams, 17, of Vidalia after she hopped out of a car with a flat tire and attempted to run away, according to the GBI.
The shooting occurred near Vidalia, in the small city of Lyons, where local police heard shots fired after responding to a bank alarm just after midnight Sunday.
After then responding to a 911 call about shots fired near a mobile home park, police spotted a car driving through a ditch and through the yards of homes. The vehicle stopped and the driver, identified as Charles James, 32, ran off, the GBI said. He was later arrested about a half-mile from the mobile home park.
The GBI said Williams climbed into the driver’s seat and the car chase continued, eventually joined by the state patrol.
“During the chase, Williams drove by the officer who had James in custody,” special agent Lindsey Wilkes said in a news release. “The officer heard gunfire and fired shots towards the car.”
Its tire flattened, the car came to a stop less than a mile from the area where the first shots were reported. Williams was shot during the ensuing foot pursuit and was taken to a local hospital. She was then transferred to one in Savannah, about 85 miles east of Lyons.
Williams was stable Monday and charges were pending against her, according to a GBI spokeswoman. The agency is investigating the officer-involved shooting at the request of the Lyons Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol.
It the fourth officer-involved shooting in Georgia this year and the second to be investigated by the GBI in two days. An officer got into a shootout with a suspect being chased by police before dawn Friday in Columbus. That suspect was wounded after he reportedly fired at an officer who returned fire.
Both the GBI and the Columbus Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards are investigating that incident. It was the second time in a week that a Columbus officer fired at a suspect.
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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