DUI stop ends in shootout

Details emerged Monday about an officerinvolved shooting in Henagar over the weekend.

DeKalb County Sheriff Jimmy Harris said in a news release that the Henagar Police Department got a report of a possible drunken driver on Friday night. He said a Henagar officer located the vehicle and pulled it over, but as he was walking up to the car the driver took off.

The officer jumped back into his car and took off in pursuit on County Road 131, with the fleeing car swerving from ditch to ditch, Harris said.

A DeKalb deputy joined the chase and the Henagar officer tried to stop the fleeing vehicle using a pit maneuver. The target vehicle didn’t spin fully in the road, which the pit maneuver aims to do, but it came to a stop and the driver jumped out and began firing, Harris said. Four or five shots hit the Henagar officer’s door.

Both he and the deputy returned fire, hitting the suspect in the arms. The wounded suspect, identified as Jeremy Barnet, of Jackson County, Alabama, was taken to Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga for treatment.

Harris said the deputy was placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard, and he said he and Henagar police Chief Randall Smith asked the Alabama Bureau of Investigation to conduct an investigation. He said warrants have been obtained against Barnet for two counts of attempted murder.