Tyler Perry to pay funeral expenses for girl shot in Atlanta

arm claimed Atlanta was a “war zone” brought on after Bottoms “lost control of the city after what started out as peaceful protests, quickly turned violent. In a flurry of anti-police activity.”

The Trump campaign also launched a $250,000 ad blitz Sunday on Facebook and Twitter, claiming “violent crime has EXPLODED” as protesters call for cuts to police departments across the country. The ad features video of an empty police station with a ringing phone that sends a caller to an answering machine, which says the estimated wait time for police help is five days.

The video ends by flashing the words, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”

Biden’s campaign said the Trump approach was just another distraction from his “inaction and mismanagement” of the coronavirus crisis.

Tyler Perry has offered to pay the funeral expenses for an 8-year-old girl who was fatally shot in Atlanta over the weekend, a representative for the actor and filmmaker confirmed Wednesday.

“I’m outraged today because I’d rather be paying for 8-yearold Secoriea Turner’s college than her funeral,” Perry said in a statement to People magazine. “When does this end?”

Secoriea was riding in a Jeep Cherokee with her mother and another adult on Saturday night when they encountered “a makeshift roadblock that was manned by numerous armed individuals,” Atlanta police Lt. Pete Malecki said. When the driver tried to go around the roadblock, shots were fired and the girl was hit, Malecki told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.

Police released a short video Tuesday of an armed man who they described as a person of interest in the girl’s shooting. Malecki said the video comes from a surveillance camera near where Secoriea was shot. It shows a Black man in a white shirt and dark pants carrying an AR-15 rifle with a tan stock and grip.

A reward of up to $20,000 has been offered for information leading to the arrest and indictment of a suspect in the case.

The girl was shot near the Wendy’s restaurant where a Black man, Rayshard Brooks, was killed by a white police officer June 12. Perry also paid for Brooks’ funeral last month.

ATLANTA —

Police: Georgia man kills self as officers try

to arrest him BRUNSWICK —

Police in coastal Georgia say a man wanted in a shooting killed himself before police could arrest him.

Acting Glynn County Police Chief Jay Wiggins told The Brunswick News that Rashard Alford, 18, shot and killed himself Tuesday in a vehicle outside a motel.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Stacy Carson said police were moving in to arrest Alford.

“Law enforcement was in the process of executing a warrant and was within eyesight of him when the incident occurred,” Carson said. She said other people were in the vehicle when Alford shot himself, but declined to give further details. GBI is investigating.

Alford was wanted on charges including aggravated assault after shooting a woman Monday night in Brunswick.

The woman, who has not been named, was hospitalized in critical condition at a Jacksonville, Florida, hospital, said Brunswick Police Chief Kevin Jones. Witnesses told police the woman was shot in the neck after she stepped into an argument involving Alford and his girlfriend to aid the girlfriend.

Gwinnett police: 1 dead in fiery crash on

Interstate-85 NORCROSS —

A driver died Wednesday morning after a fiery crash on a Georgia interstate, authorities said.

Gwinnett police spokeswoman Cpl. Michele Pihera told The Atlanta Journalconstitution the crashed happened around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday on Interstate-85.

The crash involved a truck and an SUV. The truck caught fire after the crash and the driver had to be freed from the vehicle, Pihera said.

One of the drivers died on the way to the hospital but Pihera didn’t specify which driver.

An officer was injured during the rescue effort. He was hospitalized and later released.