Man suspected of burglaries shot in foot by Georgia officer

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. - A middle Georgia police officer shot a man on Wednesday who is suspected of breaking into five businesses between his release from jail on Tuesday afternoon and his capture before dawn on Wednesday.

The Union-Recorder reports that 50-year-old Antonio Craig Martin was shot in the foot by a Milledgeville police officer and taken to a Macon hospital. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is leading an inquiry into the shooting.

GBI Agent Mary Chandler said in a news release that a Milledgeville officer saw Martin around 4 a.m. driving a vehicle that had been reported as involved in the burglary of a gas station in the town around 1:40 a.m. The officer chased the vehicle, which wrecked in the woods near a downtown park. Chandler said the officer heard a loud noise and shot at Martin, wounding him. No gun belonging to Martin had been found as of Wednesday afternoon.

Martin, an Atlanta resident, was released from the Putnam County jail in Eatonton on Tuesday after he was arrested Aug. 24 for a probation violation. Eatonton Police Chief Kent Lawrence said Martin then broke into a liquor store and a car repair business there, taking a truck. Police say he drove to Milledgeville, burglarizing the gas station at 1:40 a.m. Milledgeville Police Chief Dray Swicord said Martin then drove to Sparta and broke into two stores there before returning to Milledgeville, where he was spotted around 4 a.m. at another gas station.

No charges had yet been brought against Martin on Wednesday.

The unnamed police officer was not injured.

The GBI says it’s the 68th shooting involving a law enforcement officer that it has been asked to investigate this year. The local district attorney will decide if criminal charges should be shot once GBI finishes its inquiry.

And a rising positivity rate suggests things could be getting worse, with 8% of surveillance tests conducted to keep an eye on the spread of the virus coming back positive last week, compared to 5% the week before.

The growing outbreak at the university comes as case numbers across Georgia continue to fall. The state is now recording about 1,800 newly confirmed infections a day, down more than half from its late July peak. That’s still above the national average for new infections, on a per person basis, but Georgia has fallen from the worst for new infections to No. 11 as of Tuesday. More than 287,000 infections have been confirmed and at least 6,128 people in Georgia have died from the virus. The number of people hospitalized with confirmed cases of coronavirus fell below 1,500 on Wednesday, down more than half from the peak of 3,200 in July.

The university announced Tuesday that it was increasing the number of daily surveillance tests available from 360 to 450, and inviting randomized groups of students to come take a test, starting with campus housing residents.

Georgia College & State University, with 645 positive tests since Aug. 1, still has the highest share of campus infections, but new cases have slowed there. Cases are still rising fast at Georgia Southern University, which has reported 942 infections in recent weeks. Georgia Tech, which has reported 717 cases since the beginning of August, is urging students who share dorm rooms to move into singles.

Dr. Garth Russo, executive director of UGA’s University Health Center, suggested in a news release that because only one faculty member tested positive last week, it suggests that the virus is being spread somewhere else besides classrooms.