HAMPTON (US), July 17 (AP): 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 (25 kilometres) 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 told WANF-TV that Longmore entered the backyard 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, Henry County Sheriff Reginald Scandrett said. “He is conscious, breathing and talking at this time,” Scandrett said of that officer.
Clayton County Police Chief Kevin Roberts said all three officers are expected to recover. Details on the conditions of the other two wounded officers weren’t immediately made public.
Hampton Police Chief James Turner said the four killed Saturday were all residents of the same Dogwood Lakes neighbourhood 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 66-year-old Ronald Jeffers.
Sherry Wyatt, who works at Hampton’s recreation centre near Jeffers’ home, said Jeffers would regularly come in to sing at the senior centre that shares the building.
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.
