COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Investigators have released the name of a suspected shoplifter who was shot and killed by police in Town Center Mall parking lot.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has identified him as Cortez Eatmon, a 25-year-old from Alabama.
We’re digging into the initial shoplifting call and events leading up to the shooting, LIVE on Channel 2 Action News at 3:00 p.m.
Officers first received a call around 2 p.m. Wednesday about a shoplifter at the Town Center Mall in Kennesaw.
Police told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell that officers found a suspected shoplifter, later identified as Eatmon, in the parking lot.
Officers told the GBI that they approached Eatmon, but he ran from them. They said they gave him verbal commands to stop, but he didn’t.
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The GBI says officers tried Tasing Eatmon “multiple times” before they saw him with a gun. That is when one of the officers shot Eatmon, who later died at a nearby hospital.
A gun could be seen on the ground where the crime scene was located. Investigators said it does not belong to police, but they have not said if it was the gun officers saw Eatmon with.
Shoppers said they saw chest compressions being performed on the man who was shot in the parking lot.
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MALL EMPLOYEES AND SHOPPERS REACT
Channel 2’s Eryn Rogers spoke with mall store employees for WSB Tonight at 11 p.m. Wednesday.
Ivy Gopaul says she was about to clock in for her job when the scene unfolded in the parking lot.
“I don’t even think most of the people in there know what’s going on,” she said. Gopaul later found out what happened from a customer at her store.
“She said you know they just shot him and I was like, oh my goodness,” Gopaul said.
Ebonee Culp says she was going to the mall to get something to eat and noticed the crime scene.
“I’m talking about an excessive number of cop cars,” she told Rogers. “I was like why are they all here?”
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