Latest Georgia Execution: Unarmed 19-year old shot in the back by MARTA Police!

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Few details in fatal shooting involving MARTA officer

WSB-TV

 

ATLANTA — 

The Georgia Bureau of Investigaiton said late Sunday it was still gathering facts and interviewing witnesses before releasing more information about a shooting involving a MARTA officer.

Family members say a teenager was shot and killed by a MARTA police officer after a scuffle outside the Vine City rail station on Saturday night. The shooting happened on Carter Street following a series of high school homecoming football games at the Georgia Dome.

 

The victim’s brother, Rodney Stafford, told Channel 2’s Sophia Choi his brother and a group of men started arguing outside the transit station when the shots were fired and 19-year-old Joe Tavis Stafford was killed.

 

“They were like, ‘Where the gun at? Where the gun at?’ So after that, I heard a gunshot. Pow. Everybody started running," said Rodney Stafford. Stafford said he then saw a MARTA officer run past him with a gun drawn.

 

“As he was drawing his gun, I was turning back around. My brother threw his hands up. MARTA police shot him in the back. Pow. And my brother lying on the ground, just looking at me and I was looking at his gunshot wound.  As I'm looking at that, MARTA police shot him two more times in the back," said Stafford.

 

Family members had to be restrained by police after the shooting in an emotional scene.

"The officers were right here. The parents were right here trying to fight them so they were calling for extra back up. They just wanted to see their son because he was dead," said witness Cassandra Ross.

 

MARTA officials handed the shooting investigation over to the GBI. Neither the GBI nor MARTA police would say why the officer drew his gun. The officer was put on administrative leave, which is standard procedure for a shooting, officials said.