Suspect in officer-involved shooting pointed firearm at police, APD says

Wednesday night shooting was department’s first in 2015

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  • Thomas Wheatley
  • APD Chief George Turner says department will handle investigation unless new information calls for Georgia Bureau of Investigation to step in

The two Atlanta Police officers who shot and injured a suspect on Wednesday night during a foot chase in Mechanicsville — APD’s first officer-involved shooting of 2015 — are on administrative assignment as the department investigates the incident.

The shooting is the latest in a series of high-profile officer-involved shootings that have activists urging for better training and police oversight. It’s the first to take place in APD’s jurisdiction in 2015, Police Chief George Turner said at a press conference on Thursday. The department reported nine last year.

According to Turner, Officers Sean Fagan and Jimmy Alvaran approached Yuric Ussey around 7 p.m. on Wednesday as he walked in the middle of McDaniel Street in Mechanicsville. Turner says the 22-year-old suspect began to run and officers followed in pursuit.

Officers saw Ussey hold a firearm at some point during the foot chase, a detail that police officials say that a witness has corroborated. Turner says Ussey pointed the gun at the officers and they both opened fire an undetermined number of times.

“The Supreme Court is clear on when and how we can utilize force,” Turner said. “If our officers are defending themselves or a third person, an individual is aggressively coming at them and they can perceive an immediate threat from that person, they have a right to utilize force. In this particular case the officer felt threatened by the actual presence of the weapon when he returned fire or shot at the officer. We don’t know the particular sequence at this time.”

According to police, an inspection of the suspect’s gun showed that a bullet had “stovepiped” — essentially becoming jammed — which could indicate he possibly tried to load or fire the weapon. Officers could not say whether it jammed before or during the pursuit. Investigators learned that the firearm had been stolen in Atlanta last year, which Turner says might have prompted Ussey to run from officers.

Ussey, who APD says was on probation on a theft by receiving stolen property charge, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he is in stable condition, according to 11 Alive. He is being detained on nine charges, including two counts of aggravated assault against a peace officer, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, among others.

Following standard procedure, APD has placed Fagan and Alvaren on what’s called Force Usage Review Assignment, or FURA, for a minimum of three days. It’s a non-disciplinary action that, according to APD policies, takes an officer out of “potentially deadly force situations” while investigators review the incident.

Recent officer-involved shootings in metro Atlanta have been turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, leading the agency to ask for additional resources. APD is handling the investigation what led to Ussey’s shooting.

“If any information comes up that we should release this investigation to the GBI, we will do that at that time,” Turner says.