Witness: Officer kills man breaking up fight at party

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County police officer shot and killed an armed man at a girl’s Sweet 16 party.

Police said he was a threat, but family members and witnesses tell Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach a different story.

Witness Alex Crumbley told Gehlbach the same story as family members.

The officer came from a QuikTrip convenience store across the street, and that's when Crumbley pulled out his phone and started recording before any shots were fired up in a parking lot at the Elegant Point Event Hall on 300 block of Riverside Parkway.

Police took that video as evidence and made Crumbley delete it, but Gehlbach was able to get his hands on it.

Family members said the first shots outside the Sweet 16 party at the event hall in South Cobb were attempts to break up a fight. Marco Genchi said his uncle fired into the air, not at police.

“No, he didn’t point the gun at no police,” Genchi said of his uncle.

Genchi then told Gehlbach the officer shot and killed his uncle without warning.

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"He didn’t say nothing, didn’t say put your hands up. Nothing; just shot him,” Genchi said.

Cobb County police said the officer working security across the street at the gas station, was off duty, but in full uniform, when he responded to the fight and encountered the armed man.

“He wasn’t pointing it at the officer?” Gehlbach asked.

“No, the gun was to his side,” Crumbley said.

Crumbley said the officer never yelled anything, but listening to the five seconds in between the shots, it’s hard to make out what’s going on with so much screaming.

“Was there commands like drop the gun?” Gehlbach asked.

“No,” Crumbley said.“There was no words, (he) didn’t even say nothing until everyone came and was, like, 'Did you shoot him?'" Crumbley said.

Once its investigation is complete, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will turn over everything to the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office for review.

Cox Media Group