By Henri Hollis and Caroline Silva
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DORAVILLE, Ga. — A man was shot by a Doraville police officer after gaining access to a patrol vehicle Thursday morning, authorities said.
The incident began as a traffic stop along Chamblee Tucker Road shortly before noon, the GBI said in a statement. Doraville officers attempted to pull over a van driven by Walfre Bautista Miranda, who the GBI said had active felony warrants, when the 41-year-old reversed into a patrol vehicle and then tried to pull forward.
Officers boxed Miranda in and prevented him from fleeing the area. The GBI said Miranda got out of the van with a machete and walked toward an officer.
Miranda was then able to get inside and take control of a patrol vehicle with access to all weapons, including a rifle, the state agency said.
“At that time, officers shot Miranda and he was taken into custody,” according to the GBI.
The man was taken to a hospital, but his condition was not released. No officers were injured in the incident.
For more than three hours after the shooting, GBI vehicles and crime scene investigators remained at the scene. The two vehicles involved in the traffic stop remained in the road on DeKalb Technology Parkway, which was closed to traffic and roped off with crime scene tape while authorities investigated.
A Doraville police patrol SUV was parked across the road in front of a white van, and several evidence markers were placed on the ground by the passenger side of the van and near another patrol vehicle.
The shooting was the second involving law enforcement in metro Atlanta in as many days. On Wednesday morning, a protester at Atlanta’s planned public safety training center exchanged gunfire with a Georgia State Patrol trooper, the GBI said. The trooper was seriously injured and the protester was killed.
The trooper was taken to the hospital in critical condition and underwent surgery, a GSP spokesman said. The trooper’s condition is now considered stable. His name has not been released.
The protester has not been publicly identified.
Thursday’s incident was the eighth officer-involved shooting the GBI has been asked to investigate this year.
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