GBI investigation nears end
♦ An investigation into the fatal shooting of a Cedartown woman by police will likely be handed over to the DA within the next two weeks.
A GBI investigation into the shooting death of a Cedartown woman by law enforcement officers last month is expected to be closed within the next two weeks and handed over to the Floyd County District Attorney’s Office for review, according to Greg Ramey, the special agent in charge at the Region 1 office in Calhoun.
“Not a lot has varied,” Ramey said. “It was pretty much straight forward.”
The details released by the GBI the day of the shooting on May 7, indicated 55-year-old Kimberley Rae McCann fired at police after crashing in to several patrol vehicles at the intersection of U.S. 411 and Ga. Loop 1 during a chase. She was killed by the gunfire returned by four officers, marking the 11th officer-involved shooting in Georgia over an 11-day span.
Agents have determined the number of times McCann shot — to be included in the case file provided to the DA’s office, Ramey said. But on Tuesday, he would only say she fired at least once. There were two handguns in her red Toyota pickup truck, a semiautomatic pistol and a revolver, he said.
McCann was struck multiple times by officers’ gunfire while inside the truck, which she never got out of, Ramey said.
The officers involved — Floyd County police officers Leonard Whaley and Chris Shelley, Georgia State Patrol Trooper Jamie Mitchell and Floyd County Sheriff’s Deputy Devin Womack — were put on administrative leave pending the results of the GBI’s investigation.
The mental health of McCann was a subject of the investigation, with agents attempting to determine if she had any issues, Ramey said.
However, he declined to comment if there was any evidence of her suffering from a mental illness or condition and whether it played into her actions the day of the shooting.
There were two incidents with Polk County police the day before the shooting when McCann displayed erratic behavior in dealing with officers, including verbal confrontations and having delusions police were out to get here, reports stated.
According to Polk County police and 911 reports:
A representative from the Veteran’s Affairs crisis line told a Polk County police sergeant McCann had called and expressed a desire to commit suicide, also saying she had a mental disorder.
In that same phone call with the crisis line, she said she would shoot officers if they came to her Harris Circle home.
On the day of the shooting, McCann was speeding through a school zone in Cave Spring when a police officer attempted a traffic stop.
But she did not stop and a chase began.