GBI investigating fatal officer-involved shooting in Gwinnett

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Investigators have identified an armed suspect they say was shot and killed by Gwinnett County police.

Police said Steven Hutchins had a gun while walking down Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in the Spring Hill area early Thursday morning.

Gwinnett police said they got a 911 call around 3:30 a.m. about a suspicious person with a gun.

Police told Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach that when they confronted a man they could see a gun tucked in his waistband.

"At one point the suspect took the weapon out of his waistband and started aiming it, or pointing it at our officers," Cpl. Michelle Pihera, with the Gwinnett County Police Department, said.

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That's when one officer fired multiple shots, hitting Hutchins. One of the officers, a SWAT team medic, grabbed his gear and tried to save his life, but Hutchins died at the scene.

"We did try to engage him in conversation, we did try to ask him to put his weapon down, but unfortunately he did not," Pihera told Gehlbach.

Alli Scott works in a coin laundry in the strip mall where the shooting happened. She told Gehlbach that all the nearby businesses were closed at that time of night, but they have cameras that are always recording.

"We have them on the trash cans over there and, like I said, have it right here in front of the parking lot.

At least in front of our store," Scott said as she showed Gehlbach where the surveillance cameras were located.

After handing the video over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the laundromat said a camera on the corner of the building only captured the suspect walking through the lot and not the shooting.

Police said they found a gun with the suspect, but he never fired any shots at the officers.

The officers involved in the incident are now on leave pending the outcome of the GBI’s investigation.

Gwinnett police said most of their officers don't have body cameras yet, but cameras will be issued to all officers within the next couple of months.

Cox Media Group