A police officer has been placed on paid administrative leave as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation probes the shooting of a 19-year-old man in a small South Georgia city, according to information from GBI and the Sylvester Police Department.
Jakerion Shmoud Jackson died Saturday after an officer in Sylvester, responding to a call about a person matching the description of a man police were looking for, shot him, the GBI said.
Circumstances surrounding the shooting were not disclosed, but a GBI news release indicated it might be connected with an attempted traffic stop hours earlier.
The GBI said its preliminary investigation has found that a police officer tried to pull over a vehicle around 2:30 午前. There was a brief chase and the subject ran from police.
About three hours later, Sylvester Police received multiple 911 calls describing a suspicious person in the area where the man was last seen, the GBI release said.
A Sylvester officer responded and encountered the man, later identified as Jackson, and fired his gun, ニュースリリースは言った. No information was disclosed about what led the officer to shoot Jackson.
The teen was pronounced dead at a hospital. A GBI medical examiner will conduct an autopsy, 代理店は言った.
No officers were injured, 当局は言った.
The Sylvester Police Department didn’t release the name of the officer, who is on paid administrative leave, according to Chief Shawn Urquhart.
She said the officer was wearing a body camera, but didn’t know whether his car had a camera on the dashboard.
The GBI said its findings will be turned over to the Tift Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Sylvester Mayor Pro-Tem Larry Johnson told CNN he had not heard whether Jackson’s family had contacted the city about the incident or whether they had hired an attorney.
Sylvester is a city of about 5,800 residents in Worth County in South Georgia. The police department has 23 officers, according to its website.
