Authorities said a drunken man shooting a gun outside his Bartow County home fired at deputies Tuesday evening when they arrived at the scene.
Now, the search is on for 39-year-old Justin Ray Green, who investigators described as armed and dangerous.
The shooting occurred shortly before 9 p.m. when authorities were called to a home on Mountain View Road near Lake Allatoona in unincorporated Acworth. Green, who lives in a building on the property, was being “drunk and disorderly” and shooting his gun, the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. He also had warrants for his arrest stemming from a previous incident, authorities said.
“As soon as deputies arrived in the area, Justin fired multiple shots at them and fled into the woods,” officials said Wednesday morning.
Deputies returned fire, but it’s unclear if anyone was struck. A perimeter was set up in the area overnight, but authorities haven’t been able to locate Green, a sheriff’s office spokesman said.
The GBI was called in to investigate, as is the case with most police shootings in Georgia.
Green is now wanted on several charges, including aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the sheriff’s office said.
Green has two felony convictions and spent nearly three years in prison for aggravated stalking in Bartow County, online records show. He was released in August 2013, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections website.
Anyone who spots Green is urged not to approach him, but to call 911 instead.
The incident in Bartow was the 31st officer-involved shooting the state agency has been asked to investigate this year and the second in the county in eight days. On May 10, a 17-year-old was shot multiple times after stealing a homeowner’s gun and pointing it at a Bartow deputy, officials said previously. The teen survived his injuries.
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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