Amanuel Menghesha
Veteran Fulton police officer ambushed, killed near Fairburn ID’d
UPDATE: The veteran Fulton County police officer shot in the head and killed early Wednesday in what the assistant chief described as an ambush-style attack has been identified as Terence Avery Green, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Family members confirmed Green was a 22-year veteran of the department.
Channel 2 sources have also confirmed the name of the suspect. He has been identified as Amanuel Menghesha.
ORIGINAL STORY: A veteran Fulton County police officer was shot in the head and killed early Wednesday in what the assistant chief described as an ambush-style attack.
The shooting happened around 1 a.m. at a home on Chastain Way, in a neighborhood off Cedar Grove Road.
Channel 2 Action News reported that the officer was among several responding to a call that shots had been fired inside the home.
By the time officers arrived, the gunman had left the home and was roaming the neighborhood, the station reported.
The officers were immediately fired upon, and as they ran for cover, one was shot in the back of the head, according to Channel 2.
A second officer was also hit, but the suspect’s bullet struck his duty belt area, shattering his police radio but not wounding the officer, the station reported.
“It was dark and it was foggy,” Fulton police Assistant Chief Gary Stiles told Channel 2. “They were doing their job, trying to protect this neighborhood from somebody that was shooting, and the way it appears to me, they were ambushed without warning.”
The gravely wounded officer was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His name has not been released.
Other officers returned fire, wounding the suspect, according to Channel 2.
The wounded suspect was also taken to Grady, and was alert and conscious. His name has also not been released.
At daybreak, police continued to examine a crime scene that spanned about three blocks. The suspect’s home on nearby Parks Trail was surrounded by police tape, and Stiles said police recovered the suspect’s weapon, described as a “long gun.”
The suspect was known to police from previous alcohol-related calls to his home, Channel 2 reported.
“I got a call tonight that every police chief dreads and prays never happens,” Fulton police Chief Cassandra Jones said from outside Grady Memorial Hospital. “I got a call that I had lost one of my officers.”
Jones asked that the community “please be with us and pray for us. We have to pray for all our family members, and the officer’s family members foremost.”
Jones said the slain officer had been on the force for about 22 years.
“He worked in many divisions of the police department,” she said. “A very dedicated officer.
“We’re all grieving terribly. We’re probably not handing it well, but we’re trying to stay strong.”
Stiles echoed the chief’s sentiments.
“I think you can guess where my heart’s at,” Stiles said. “It’s heartbreaking. The men and women of this department obviously are going to be heartbroken over it.”
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page website, the last Fulton County police officer killed in the line of duty was Aaron Jovon Blount, who was shot April 22, 2003, on a traffic stop in south Fulton’s Red Oak community. The last Fulton County sheriff’s deputy killed in the line of duty was Hoyt Teasley, who was shot to death by Brian Nichols on March 11, 2005.
Nichols, on trial for rape, overwhelmed a deputy and burst into a courtroom, killing Fulton Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes and his court reporter Julie Brandau. While escaping, Nichols shot and killed Teasley, another deputy outside the courthouse.
Alfred Printup lives on the street where Wednesday’s shooting happened. He said that as he arrived home from work a little after midnight, police told him that there was a gunman loose in the area.
“They asked me if I could leave the area until they had him in custody,” Printup told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Once I left the area, I called my wife to let her know there was a gunman loose in our neighborhood, and as I was talking to her, we heard the gunfire going off,” he said. “We heard about three volleys of rounds going off at different times.”
He said the incident was “very frightening” for his wife. “At the time, she and my son took a position on the floor just to stay low and get out of the way of a possible stray round.”
Printup, who has lived on Chastain Way for eight years, said news of the officer’s death “broke my heart, to know that he cared enough to give his life protecting my family and my community.”
— Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this report.
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/fulton-...fairbur/nkNRr/
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