MARIETTA, Ga. — A man who police say dragged an officer with his car outside a metro Atlanta hotel has died after police shot him.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed the man’s death Friday morning. Investigators identified him as 26-year-old Rafael Esteban Ramirez.
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Marietta police responded to the Motel 6 on Delk Road around 6 p.m. Thursday. Police said the situation escalated into a shooting.
“They were conducting a suspicious person stop. Within a minute of their arrival, there was a shooting incident with those two officers,” police department spokesman Chuck McPhilamy said.
The GBI said Ramirez reversed his car, hit a marked police car and then pinned an officer between the two cars. The GBI said Ramirez dragged and injured the officer and police fired shots at Ramirez.
Witnesses told Channel 2′s Matt Johnson they heard gunshots fired into a red Honda then looked for ways to avoid being hit by bullets themselves.
“That happened right there in front of us, right there in our hotel room,” Quintonious Harrison said. “Two minutes after we check in all we hear is gunshots; we took cover for like 30 seconds and came outside.”
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Witnesses said the man was shot in the head.
“They took him out of the car, but they put a cover over him fast,” Harrison said.
Latoya Moultrie said she witnessed some of the shooting and that the man who was shot was trying to leave the area.
“He never fired no weapon, no nothing of sort,” she said.
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According to Moultrie, officers were behind the man’s car while he tried to leave the parking lot, but never got a chance.
“He said, ‘I don’t want to talk.’ That’s all he yelled and he kept trying to pursue to leave out of the premises,” Moultrie said. “They backed up, drew their weapon and fired five shots.”
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