Suspects in stolen car incident that ended in Columbus police shooting are identified
The three suspects in a Feb. 7 incident in which a Columbus offer fired into a stolen car that police said was speeding toward him were all teenagers, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Thursday.
Jakori Thomas and Elijah Smith, both 17, were inside the carwhen police arrived around 5:15 p.m. to the Riverwind Apartments at 1811 Riverland Drive, in the Oakland Park neighborhood,the GBI said.
A third suspect, 16, was not named because of his juvenile status.
Thomas and Smith were booked into the Muscogee County Jail on charges of theft by receiving stolen property, records show.
According to the GBI, a man who recognized his sister’s stolen car followed it to Riverwind Apartments and called police. The car had been reported stolen two days earlier, the agency said.
Two officers responded, parking their patrol cars in front of the vehicle. As they approached, the driver sped toward one of the officers, who shot at it “multiple times,” the GBI said.
Police later found the car abandoned at Thornton Drive and Lumpkin Court, just hours before three people arrived at Piedmont Columbus Regional, two of them wounded. One was shot in the shoulder, and the other in the arm, the GBI said.
The GBI did not specify which of the three were wounded or which was the driver.
“Video surveillance from the area of where the vehicle was abandoned appears to show the same three individuals running from the vehicle,” the agency added in a news release.
The unidentified police officer who fired at the car is on leave as the investigation proceeds. The GBI’s findings will go to the district attorney’s office for review.
The police department’s Office of Professional Standards also will investigate the shooting, police said.
Anyone with more information on the case can contact the GBI at 706-565-7888.