Police: Gunfight with officer leads to manhunt

AUSTELL, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - A massive overnight manhunt took place in Austell after a shooting suspect allegedly got into a gunfight with a police officer.

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Police sealed off the neighborhood around Janet Lane, as the SWAT team and other officers tried to track down the suspect. At around 9 a.m., officers arrested the suspect, later identified by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation as Melchizedek Woodward, at a home less than a mile away from the manhunt area.

A FOX 5 viewer shared a photo of the injured suspect being loaded into an ambulance outside the home.

They say around 10 p.m. Monday night an officer spotted Woodward, who was wanted in connection with a nearby shooting that happened last week. Police say the suspect had also threatened a neighbor and that neighbor called the police Monday night reporting that he had seen the suspect. 

The officer tried to question the suspect when he allegedly pulled a gun and started shooting. The officer returned fire and the suspect then took off running.

Sometime during the encounter, the officer's squad car collided with the suspect's U-Haul van. As that van was being towed away from the crime scene, a bullet hole could be seen in the windshield.

Police sealed off the neighborhood, brought in K-9s and drones to search for the gunman. They were also searching for a house that the suspect was connected to. Residents were ordered to stay inside and keep the doors locked, others weren't allowed to return to their homes.