ATLANTA, Ga. (WANF/Gray News) – Two police officers are recovering in the hospital after they were shot while responding to a reported burglary at a gun store, according to officials.
The suspect, who has not been identified, was killed in a shootout with police. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been called to look into the incident.
At about 11:45 p.m. on Friday, police were called to Adventure Outdoors, a sport and gun store in Smyrna. The GBI said an employee reported someone was inside the closed business.
Officers brought the man outside, but when officers tried to arrest the man, he allegedly escaped and started to fire with a rifle, the GBI said.
Two officers were hit in the leg.
Three Cobb County police officers, who had just arrived to help, shot and killed the suspect, according to the GBI. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A Cobb County SWAT team cased the building to make sure nobody else was inside, the GBI said.
Both officers are expected to recover, and one will be released from the hospital soon, said Smyrna Police Chief Keith Zgonc.
“Honestly, I’m angry,” he said. “It angers me that we have people who want to do this, that want to take shots at police officers, that want to do us harm, and clearly the individual that committed this act was involved in a criminal act.”
Cobb County Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer said none of his department’s officers were injured in the shooting.
“We’re keeping the Smyrna police family and our own police family in our thoughts and prayers for sure, as we constantly do,” he said.
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