Columbus police release name of officer involved in deadly chase on Cusseta Road
The Columbus Police Department on Monday identified Ryan Vardman as the officer who hit 22-year-old Deonte Giles with a patrol car following Thursday’s chase from Nina Street to Cusseta Road near 25th Avenue.
Vardman has been with the department for six years. He will remain on leave while the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating, which is standard procedure.
Police were pursuing Giles on Thursday after responding to a call that he’d allegedly pointed a gun at a woman at Farley Homes, and recognizing him as a murder suspect wanted in the death of 44-year-old Dudley Jones Jr., who was shot April 1 on Ticknor Drive.
On Cusseta Road, according to Chief Ricky Boren, Giles lost control and struck a telephone pole and then a fence. He exited his vehicle, according to police, and pointed a weapon at an officer in a marked car. Another armed suspect exited the vehicle, Boren said.
A responding officer, now identified as Vardman, “saw that individual with that gun and ran over the individual that had the weapon to eliminate the threat,” Boren said.
Click here for information about two cases that Vardman worked in 2016 that made the news.
Sarah Robinson: 706-571-8622, @sarahR_92
This story was originally published May 22, 2017 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Columbus police release name of officer involved in deadly chase on Cusseta Road."