GBI: Officers shoot, kill suspect after unprovoked shooting in South Georgia

BAINBRIDGE, Ga. — A man was fatally shot by South Georgia officers after authorities said he was seen standing over a body in the middle of the street, holding a sawed-off shotgun.

Witnesses told responding investigators that Henry Isaac Jones, 47, shot another man without provocation in Bainbridge on Saturday afternoon, according to the GBI. The victim was carrying a fishing pole and simply passed Jones in the street, the agency said in a news release.

Bainbridge Public Safety officers had made contact with Jones, also known as Ike, on multiple occasions before the deadly shooting. They recognized him when they arrived to the area of Church and 4th streets to investigate, said Jamy Steinberg, the GBI special agent in charge.

“Officers gave verbal commands for Jones to drop the shotgun, which he did not do,” he said.

The officers tried to get Jones to move away from the body, later identified as 57-year-old Stuffon Sanders, Steinberg said. Sanders lived on nearby 3rd Street.

When he would not move away or put down the shotgun, the officers fired rifles on Jones, Steinberg said. He later died at a hospital.

Autopsies on both Sanders and Jones are scheduled to be performed Tuesday, according to the GBI. The state agency is assisting Bainbridge with the homicide investigation as well as investigating the officer-involved shooting, one of two in the state this year.

In the second officer-involved shooting, a Hall County sheriff’s deputy fired on a driver who rammed a patrol car early Tuesday morning and attempted to flee a traffic stop, according to the GBI. The driver was shot in the arm and is expected to survive.

In 2019, the GBI was requested to investigate 84 officer-involved shootings.

This article was written by Chelsea Prince with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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