A veteran Georgia police officer was shot and killed early Wednesday morning in what authorities are describing as an ambush attack that terrified the Fulton County neighborhood.
Terence Avery Green, a 22-year member of the Fulton Police force, was killed while responding with other officers to multiple 911 calls about a possibly intoxicated man firing shots outside a home in the
Cedar Grove subdivision near Fairburn, WXIA-TV reported.
Assistant police chief Gary Stiles said officers began searching for the gunman around 12:45 a.m. and within minutes came under fire. Green was shot in the back of the head and rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital where doctors later pronounced him dead around 4:30 a.m., Stiles said.
"It's heartbreaking for the men and women in this department," he said. "Obviously we're going to be heartbroken over it but we have a job to do and we're going to complete that job."
Fulton County Police Chief Cassandra Jones told WXIA-TV that the department was stunned by Green's death.
"You can never prepare for something like this," she said. "We're not handling it very well."
Police took a suspect into custody, identified as Amanuel Menghesha. He was shot by officers during an exchange of gunfire at the scene, but his condition is unknown.
Authorities told WSB-TV that Menghesha has had run-ins with police before in incidents involving alcohol.
Alfred Printup, a resident who lives on the street where
Wednesday's shooting occurred, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the news of Green's death "broke my heart, to know that he cared enough to give his life protecting my family and my community."
Printup said he tried to arrive home a little after midnight but police told him they could not allow him to enter the neighborhood because they were searching for a gunman. Printup said he called his wife at home to warn her what was happened when he heard gunshots.
According to the website Officer Down Memorial Page, the last Fulton County police officer killed in the line of duty was Aaron Jovon Blount, who was shot April 22, 2003, during a traffic stop in south Fulton’s Red Oak community.
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