GBI: Officers fired on suspect who rammed police car

ATLANTA - Police in Atlanta said officers were forced to open fire on a suspect Thursday afternoon.

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It started as an attempted traffic stop around 3:20 p.m. along Jonesboro Road. Atlanta Police said instead of stopping, a green extended cab pickup truck took off. Officers briefly followed, but because their protocol, broke off the pursuit.

Police said the truck eventually wrecked in an industrial area along Forrest Park Road SE near S. River Industrial Blvd. SE. Agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigators said the truck rammed a patrol car as officers approached and those officers the opened fire.

"And we zoomed in, you know, we saw 20 to 30 police cars, and then we saw an ambulance pull up. We saw a bunch of commotion around what appeared to be a car. We couldn't really see because of the trees and they pulled somebody out of the car and put them on a stretcher and put them in the ambulance," said Andy Humphrey, who works near the scene.

The suspect, whose name has not yet been released, was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital in critical condition. He remained in the ICU as of late Thursday evening.

The GBI crime scene specialists were at the scene well into the evening collecting evidence and logging the scene.

SKYFOX 5 flew over the area around 3:50 p.m. and spotted a green extended cab pickup truck smashed into a guardrail across the street from the entrance to the Atlanta South River WPC Plant. Police vehicle surrounded the vehicle.

The GBI has been asked to investigate the incident and the officers have been placed on paid administrative leave, standard procedure in a case such as this.