ATLANTA (AP) - Three people were shot by Georgia law officers during separate confrontations on Tuesday, bringing the state’s total of officer-involved shootings so far this year to 15, state investigators said Wednesday.
One of the shootings was fatal.
The latest shootings involved the Georgia State Patrol in McIntosh County; Atlanta and East Point police in Atlanta; and the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Natalie Ammons said in an email.
In coastal McIntosh County, a state trooper pulled over a vehicle on Interstate 95 around 9:20 a.m. Tuesday. During the traffic stop, 20-year-old Sasha Ann Pishko of Clermont, Florida, drove off, hitting the trooper with her vehicle, the GBI said.
The trooper fired multiple shots into the vehicle, and Pishko drove a short distance before crashing, the GBI said. Pishko was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday.
The trooper was being treated for minor injuries.
Atlanta and East Point police officers were working on a joint investigation into stolen vehicles when officers tried to stop a suspected stolen vehicle on an interstate exit ramp around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, the GBI said. The vehicle initially pulled over but drove away as an officer approached.
Officers followed the vehicle to an intersection in southwest Atlanta, where the vehicle wrecked and hit marked and unmarked police vehicles, the GBI said. Atlanta and East Point officers fired, and the driver was hit in the leg, the GBI said.
The driver, 34-year-old Willie Banks of Atlanta, was taken to a hospital where he was in stable condition, the GBI said. An Atlanta officer who suffered injuries was treated and released from a hospital.
Banks was arrested and faces multiple charges. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer who could comment on the charges.
A Walton County sheriff’s deputy was on routine patrol around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when he saw a pedestrian in a busy road in Loganville. The deputy turned his vehicle around and turned on his blue lights to try to get the man to step out of the road, the GBI said.
The 19-year-old man jogged away from the deputy and didn’t stop when the deputy ordered him to, the GBI said. During a foot chase, the deputy called in over his radio to say the man had a gun. A short time later, the deputy fired and hit the man, the GBI said.
The man was hospitalized in stable condition and formal charges were pending, the GBI said. The deputy was placed on administrative leave with pay, which is standard procedure for the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, the GBI said.
Once the GBI completes its investigations of the shootings, investigators plan to turn over the results to local prosecutors for review, the GBI said.
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