Georgia police officer shot, killed responding to ‘suspicious person’ call

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

9 years ago

A photo and flowers are left at a street side memorial for a teen who was fatally shot by police in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016. (Nick Ut/AP)

This file photo provided by the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, shows Sgt. Craig Hutchinson, who was shot and killed at his home Monday, July 25, 2016, in Round Rock, Texas. Hutchinson, who was killed by a bullet from his own gun outside his home last month, had been facing foreclosure, according to a media report Tuesday, Aug. 9. (Travis County Sheriff’s Office via AP)

Eastman Georgia. (Google Maps)

Maria Ramirez a neighborhood resident places a candle near a police involved shooting of a teen in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016. (Nick Ut/AP)

A Jackson Police officer looks over crime tape near Brianfield Cove in Jackson, Tenn., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent was shot to death Tuesday during an undercover drug investigation in West Tennessee, the agency said. (C.B. Schmelter/The Jackson Sun via AP)

EASTMAN, Ga. — Authorities say a police officer in a small, central Georgia city has been shot and killed by a suspect who remains on the loose.

Special agent Scott Whitley of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations tells The Associated Press that Eastman Patrol Officer Tim Smith was fatally shot about 9:30 p.m. Saturday in a residential area of the city located about 60 miles southeast of Macon.

Whitley says Smith was responding to a suspicious person call when he encountered the suspect, exited his patrol car and was shot. The suspect fled the scene.

Whitley says Smith was in his early 30s but no further information about him was immediately available. He says an unidentified suspect is being sought and an investigation is ongoing.

Smith was not wearing a body camera.