Officer recovering after being shot; suspect at large

BUTTS COUNTY, Ga. — Police are searching for the man who shot a police officer in Butts County overnight.

Jackson police and officials with the Butts County Sheriff’s Office were on the scene of an officer shot near Camellia Court.

Chief James Morgan said Officer Sherry Hall was on patrol and spotted a man sitting on the side of the road.

She went down and confronted the person and he became somewhat combative, police said.

"She was just only trying to identify the person and just have a brief conversation just to generally find out why he was sitting at the end of the street," Morgan said.

The man shot Hall in the stomach area.

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“Apparently (Hall) did get at least one round off,” Morgan said.

He said the officer then called for backup and that when additional officers arrived, that’s when the suspect ran off.

Hall was wearing a bulletproof vest that police said likely saved her life. She is recovering at a Macon hospital, but Morgan said her injuries would have been far worse without her body armor.

Morgan said it is too early to know for sure what caused the situation to escalate so quickly.

Channel 2's Audrey Washington spoke to a woman who knows the officer and was shocked to hear about the shooting.

"She's a really nice person," resident Denetta Watts said.

Washington asked her how she felt finding out it was Hall that was injured.

"How you feel when anyone, especially a police officer, gets shot. It hurts. You don't want them to be hurt. I'm distraught. It's just sad that this happened in our community," Watts said.

The GBI is now in charge of the investigation. They started going door-to-door just before noon Tuesday.

The GBI said it may go through surveillance video from cameras mounted on the front and back of a home near the scene of the shooting.

Hall is on paid administrative leave, as is customary for an officer-involved shooting.

Cox Media Group