2 officers shot, suspect dead after gunfire at Georgia hotel

Taylor Croft, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Apr 18, 2025

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ATLANTA — Two officers were injured in a shootout that killed the suspected gunman in Fulton County on Friday, according to South Fulton police.

The shooting prompted a heavy police presence at a motel near the Fulton County airport and has blocked Fulton Industrial Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Fulton officers saw a “suspicious individual” and requested assistance from South Fulton officers, who responded to the scene, police said in a news release.

A shootout ensued, in which a Fulton officer and a South Fulton officer were both injured and the suspect was killed, according to the police department.

The police activity at one point had all eastbound lanes of I-20 closed at Fulton Industrial Boulevard, or Exit 49. The interstate was also briefly shut down through west Atlanta heading toward downtown.

Robert Morales, a manager at the Budgetel Inn & Suites on Fulton Industrial, said in a phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that a man was fighting in the street and “started running, he started shooting the police, so they started shooting back.”

The man ran in a hotel door, through the lobby and out an exit door to the parking lot, Morales said. None of the staff or employees was injured, he added.

U.S. marshals are also at the scene. A Fulton Police Department spokesperson declined to comment.

The GBI confirmed its investigators are also responding.

The incident comes three days after a South Fulton officer was killed in a head-on crash while on duty. Lt. Helio Garcia, 47, was the first South Fulton officer to die in the line of duty.

On Thursday, a Paulding County deputy was shot in a neighborhood near Dallas while responding to a wellness check. Deputy Brice Mattick was treated at a hospital and later released.

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(Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writers Vanessa McCray, Rosana Hughes, Alexis Stevens and Jozsef Papp and freelance photojournalist Ben Hendren contributed to this article.)

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