3 Atlanta police officers shot after responding to gunman call

Three Atlanta police officers responding to a call Saturday evening about an armed man were shot and injured, authorities said. The suspect died during the encounter.

The situation unfolded around 5:15 p.m. local time when officers were dispatched to call 911 in the Capitol View neighborhood of Atlanta for “a man with a weapon that the caller considered a threat to community,” said Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum. journalists during a press briefing.

Officers arrived on scene and found a suspect armed with a handgun and a knife, Schierbaum said.

“During that encounter there was a fight, there was gunfire that injured three of our officers,” Schierbaum said. “This also resulted in the death of the person armed with the handgun.”

The officers were transported to Grady Memorial Hospital. One of them suffered a shoulder injury, another suffered a leg injury and the third had a “graze wound,” Schierbaum revealed. Two of the three undergo surgery.

“They are alive and stable, they are alert, conscious and breathing,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said at a news conference outside the hospital.

Schierbaum said two of the injured officers are 31 years old, both four-year veterans of the department, and the third is a 28-year-old man who has been with the department for five months.

It is unclear where the shooting took place or what led to the shooting. Schierbaum said officers were initially called to a commercial area.

The names of the officers were not immediately released. The name of the suspect has also not been released.

Per department policy regarding all officer-involved shootings, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will investigate, Schierbaum said.