TIFTON — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is probing a shooting incident in Tift County connected to a four-county chase that ended in Lowndes County with an injured deputy.
Around 8 p.m. Saturday, a deputy in Turner County tried to make a traffic stop on a speeding car southbound on I-75, a GBI statement said.
After a chase, the suspect driver — a 39-year-old Indiana man — got off the interstate in Tift County and headed to a Dollar General store. The Turner County deputy followed the driver and tried to contain the car; as the suspect left the scene, he tried to run over the deputy, so the deputy fired his weapon, said Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk.
Pursuit of the suspect proceeded into Cook County and finally into Lowndes County around 8:30 p.m., the sheriff said.
A Lowndes County sheriff’s deputy performed a PIT maneuver on the suspect’s car, the GBI said.
A Lowndes County patrol car was wrecked in the process, Paulk said; the deputy driving the patrol car needed minor surgery but was doing well and was expected to be discharged from the hospital soon, the sheriff said.
The suspect was finally captured and faces “a bunch of traffic charges,” Paulk said.
This is the 90th officer-involved shooting the GBI has been requested to investigate in 2023.