Georgia Police Officer Killed, Suspect Dead in Shooting Near Emory University

ATLANTA — A suspect accused of repeatedly firing a gun near Emory University and fatally wounding a law enforcement officer is dead, officials said.

Authorities confirmed a DeKalb County police officer died but did not release a name.

The shooting, which began late Friday, prompted a lockdown of the campus and the nearby Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Emory’s shelter-in-place order was lifted at 6:34 p.m.

Few details were immediately released, but a post on X from the school’s Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response alerted students and staff of an “active shooter” at the Emory Point CVS just after 5 p.m. A later post from Emory College stated the shooter was on campus near Emory Point.

Those nearby were directed to run, hide and fight.

Emory Point is a mixed-use development where students often rent apartments. Clifton Road divides Emory Point from several university buildings and the CDC.

The officer killed was responding to reports of a shooting "as he was trained to do," police Interim Chief Greg Padrick said.

"We answer the call to serve our community, and he gave his life with a commitment to serve others, and he should be respected for that," Padrick said.

Witnesses who were at the scene described the confusion. Sony St. Clair was driving an Emory University shuttle down Clifton Road when he saw a man sprinting.

“I was like ‘Why are you running?’ and the next thing I know, I was by the CVS and the whole shooting happened, and I drove so fast,” he said.

St. Clair said he could smell the sharp scent of gunpowder. For a moment, he thought he’d been hit, and he checked his body for bullets. Then he slammed on the gas.

A little further down Clifton Road, Christopher Rolette-Mosley, from Laurel, Maryland, was passing through the area on the way to visit his mother when he got swept up in a line of police cars racing down Briarcliff Road.

“It breaks my heart in a city like this, which is ironically known for human rights and civil rights, to see this -- an active shooter,” he said, standing outside his car. “At some point our politicians gotta lower the rhetoric and realize we gotta do something about gun control for the sake of our nation.”

DeKalb CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said the officer and other frontline responders are individuals who run toward danger so others have the ability to run away.

She added that it is a "dark day" for her county. “This evening, there is a wife without a husband. There are three children, one unborn, without a father,” she said. “There is a mother and a father, as well as siblings, who also share in this traumatic loss.

"Let's join together to give this family the support that it needs during this traumatic loss," she said.

The GBI is leading the investigation into Friday's tragedy, officials said.

The state agency is working alongside the FBI, the Atlanta Police Department and the DeKalb County Police Department.

_____

©2025 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.