The shootings occurred in three separate incidents, and according to CNN, highlight a particularly brutal period of time now going on across the country during which we have seen 64 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
WTVR6 Richmond is reporting the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund is reporting the Georgia shootings, as well as the many other shootings of police officers has put 2016 well above the total for police fatalities last year.
The six-day spree of shootings began on Wednesday, December 9 when Americus police officer Nicholas Ryan Smarr, 25, was responding to a domestic call at a local apartment complex. His best friend since childhood, GSW officer Jody Smith, 26, heard the call and decided to respond as a backup.
After arriving on the scene, the two officers were met by 32-year-old Minquell Kennedy Lembrick, who shot Smarr, fatally wounding him and critically wounded Smith, who later died from his injuries. Smith was planning on getting married in the spring and had asked Smarr to be his best man, according to Atlanta’s 11Alive.
Five days after Smarr’s death, two police officers from Byron were shot during a drug operation. The two officers, James Wynn and William Patterson were part of a task force serving a probable-cause warrant at a home on state Highway 42 early Monday.
Shooting started and the suspect, who was killed, wounded the two police officers. The officers were transported to Medical Center, Navicent Health in Macon. Officer Patterson, 26, who was wounded in the left arm, was treated and released. Wynn, age 27, was shot in the vest and the left arm. He was taken to surgery and is recovering.
And on Monday night, clear over on the other side of the state, not far from South Carolina, two police officers pulled a car over into a Zaxby’s Restaurant parking lot in Lavonia, a city in Franklin County, while they ran the vehicle’s registration. They learned the vehicle was stolen and prepared to arrest the male driver, 22-year-old Khari Anthony Dashaun Gordon.
The driver brandished a weapon, firing at both the officers before escaping into a wooded area about two miles from the scene. Gordon was picked up about two hours later and charged with two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of attempted murder, and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony,
Both officers were transported to a local hospital. One officer was shot in the hand and the other was shot in the shoulder. Both officers are expected to survive.
