Suspect in four Georgia killings fatally shot by police during manhunt
Officers on Sunday shot and killed a man wanted in four weekend killings near Atlanta during an exchange of gunfire, with a sheriff’s deputy and two police officers wounded while trying to take the suspect into custody, authorities said.
Officials said Andre Longmore was shot during an intense manhunt for the 40-year-old suspect. The exchange of gunfire came a day after Saturday morning’s shootings rocked a bucolic subdivision in Hampton, south of Georgia’s main city.
Officials said Longmore was killed about 15 miles (25km) to the north of Hampton in suburban Jonesboro. Clayton county police said a Henry county sheriff’s deputy saw the SUV that Longmore stole from one of the victims and began chasing him, calling for help. After exchanging gunfire with Longmore, Clayton police said he ran away.
Justin Robinson told WANF-TV that Longmore entered the back yard of a townhouse.
“He had a gun, he was bleeding, he was naked,” Robinson said.
Robinson said he alerted police officers, who were greeted with gunfire when they entered the townhouse where Longmore had hidden.
“Soon as they open the back door this guy starts shooting, shoots at the cops,” Robinson said. “The police start shooting.”
A Henry county sheriff’s deputy and two Clayton county police officers were injured in the attempt to arrest Longmore, officials said.
One officer was shot in the back and was taken by helicopter to an Atlanta trauma center, the Henry county sheriff, Reginald Scandrett, said. “He is conscious, breathing and talking at this time,” Scandrett said of that officer.
The Clayton county police chief, Kevin Roberts, said all three officers were expected to recover. Details on the conditions of the other two wounded officers were not immediately made public.
The Hampton police chief, James Turner, said the four killed on Saturday were all residents of the same Dogwood Lakes neighborhood where Longmore lived, and were all were shot within a 10-minute span. He identified the victims as 67-year-old Scott Leavitt and his wife, 66-year-old Shirley Leavitt, as well as 65-year-old Steve Blizzard and 66year-old Ronald Jeffers.
Authorities had been seeking to arrest Longmore on four murder warrants for the deaths. Turner said Longmore’s motives remained under investigation.
Turner told reporters earlier that detectives were investigating at least four crime scenes in Dogwood Lakes. At least three police cars staked out the neighborhood Sunday, limiting access. About 40 houses on two streets flank a lake in the neighborhood, about 25 miles (40km) south of downtown Atlanta.
Hampton is home to the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Georgia’s racetrack for Nascar events. The most recent homicide before Saturday in the town of 8,000 had been in 2018, Turner said. “It’s not normal for us,” he said.
The shootings marked the 31st mass killing of 2023, taking the lives of at least 153 people this year, according to a database maintained by The AP and USA Today in a partnership with Northeastern University. A mass killing is one in which four or more people are slain.
The Hampton mayor, Ann Tarpley, said the city would hold a prayer vigil on Monday evening for the four victims and their loved ones.
“We have their back and we will continue to support them throughout their bereavement,” Tarpley said.