The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into a police shooting involving a teenager that occurred in Sylvester, Ga., Saturday.
CNN reports that 19-year-old Jakerion Shmoud Jackson was fatally shot by an unnamed officer of the Sylvester Police Department after the officer responded to a call about a man who fit the description of someone who had led police officers in a car chase earlier that night.
From CNN:
A police officer tried to pull over a vehicle around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, the bureau said, and “a brief car chase ensued with the subject fleeing the scene on foot.”
About three hours later, after receiving 911 calls about someone matching the description of the man involved in the case, a Sylvester officer responded and encountered Jackson, the GBI said.
“This encounter led to the officer discharging his firearm, resulting in Jackson being struck,” the GBI said.
The GBI hasn’t released any details as to what transpired between the moments the officer—who has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to CNN—encountered Jackson and the moment shots were fired. There also is no word as to whether or not Jackson was the person police were initially looking for. In a statement, the bureau did say that Jackson was spotted in the area where the car chase suspect was last seen, that he was pronounced dead at the hospital after the shooting and that “no officers were injured in this incident.”
Police Chief Shawn Urquhart said that the officer was wearing a body camera but that she didn’t know if his patrol car had a dash-cam. A GBI medical examiner will be conducting Jackson’s autopsy and the bureau’s findings will be turned over to the district attorney for the Tifton Judicial District when the investigation concludes, CNN reports.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said that Jackson’s death represents the 81st shooting involving a police officer that the GBI has been called to investigate this year.