Deputies showed up at The Meadows subdivision off Ooltewah-Ringgold Road shortly after 3 p.m. after a 911 call was received that a man was seen leaving a residence carrying two duffle bags.
The suspect, who was described as being a white male in his mid-twenties with dark hair and tattoos, was then spotted by police and then fled to a wooded area near an old broken down house.
The standoff with police then ensued, which involved the man yelling to police that he was “not going back to jail.”
Several officers tried to convince the man into lowering his weapon, but those efforts were unsuccessful as the man pointed the shotgun at his own head and threatened to kill himself, reports show.
According to Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers, the man drew the gun on officers but on more than one occassion was talked out of firing.
“Officers attempted to negotiate with the individual, but he refused to drop the guns and a verbal standoff be-gan,” Summers said. “The suspect had a stolen handgun in his pocket in addition to the stolen shotgun that he had pointed at officers.”
After more deputies arrived on the scene, a total of five officers had the man cornered, at which time he raised his gun at police again, reports show.
A Catoosa County detective, who has not been publicly identified pending further investigation, then shot the man one time, Summers said.
Emergency staff attempted to revive the man, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The duffle bags the suspect was carrying, which contained stolen property, were recovered during the investigation.
The officer who took the fatal shot at the suspect was placed on paid administrative leave Tuesday evening fol-lowing the incident, which is standard procedure for an officer involved shooting.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has also begun looking into the case, which is also protocol for such an incident.
“I have no reason to think nothing other than this was a justified shooting incident,” Summers said Tuesday evening.
Officers with the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office as well as the Hamilton County (Tenn.) Sheriff’s Office were nearby the area Tuesday afternoon, as both agencies were investigating burglaries earlier in the day.
The Meadows subdivision is a short walk from the Tennessee-Georgia state line.
Another residence in the subdivision was burglarized earlier in the day, in which pistols and a shotgun were taken from the home.
It is not yet clear whether the guns taken during the morning burglary were the ones the suspect had on him during the standoff.
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