The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Officer-involved shooting is 4th in Ga. over 4 days
Savannah police shot a man who was allegedly armed with a handgun outside a bar Saturday morning, according to the GBI.
The incident was the fourth officer-involved shooting that the state agency investigated in as many days.
Two Savannah officers were working off-duty security jobs at a Congress Street club when they were called to Boomys Restaurant & Bar, which was next door, just before 3 a.m. because a man was in front of the bar with a handgun, according to a news release from the state agency.
The man, later identified as 35-year-old Robert Gadson, had allegedly been in an argument with a bouncer, the GBI release states. The argument turned physical, and the man pulled out a handgun.
As officers approached Gadson, they ordered him to drop the weapon, but he instead pointed it at officers, according to the release. An exchange of gunfire followed, and Gadson was struck. No officers were injured.
Gadson was taken to a hospital, where he was said to be critical, the GBI reported.
The GBI will conduct an independent investigation. Once completed, it will turn over its findings to the Eastern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review.
Just an hour and a half earlier, a man was shot and died in an incident involving Canton police, according to the GBI.
Police had received a call about a man armed with a gun inside a house in the 400 block of Parkbrook Way, and as they approached the room where the man was located, gunshots were fired, according to a news release. One of the officers fired his weapon at the man and struck him, but preliminary evidence suggests at least one of his gunshot wounds was self-inflicted.
On Wednesday, two other shootings involving police took place, The Atlanta Journal-constitution previously reported. Both of those incidents, in Banks County and Clayton County, were fatal.
Saturday’s incidents were the 31st and 32nd officer-involved shootings the GBI has been asked to investigate this year. By the same time last year, there had been 17.