Police: Deadly SWAT confrontation with armed suspect

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Law enforcement officials were left trying to piece together if a deadly confrontation with SWAT team members Tuesday evening at a DeKalb County apartment complex was related to an earlier call reporting an armed man.

DeKalb County Police said this started around 4 p.m. Tuesday at an apartment complex along Tree Hills Parkway and South Hairston Road near Stone Mountain. Officers were responding to a call of a woman being held against her will.

Police said there were shots fired when they arrived, but the man, later identified by police as 21-year-old Jonathon Buckley, got away. Officers believed he was still in the area. Several residents were evacuated as SWAT and K-9 units were brought in to search the area for Buckley. Those residents were allowed back in a few hours later, but around 8 p.m., police responded to a model apartment where an armed man was held up.

James Conroy, the Chief of Police for the DeKalb County Police Department chief said SWAT deployed gas canisters into the apartment in an effort to contain the situation. Police said the man came out shooting, striking one of the SWAT team member’s ballistic shields. Four officers returned fire.

Conroy said the SWAT officers returned fire killing the individual.

The man was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. His name was not released.

Chief Conroy did not say if the man killed was Buckley, the same man police were looking for earlier when they got a call of a man who was holding a woman against her will.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been asked to look into the officer-involved aspect of the incident. The four officers were placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, a standard practice for this type of shooting.