A state trooper was shot to death and his Georgia State Patrol car stolen Monday night after a chase in northwest Atlanta.
Police have arrested the man who they believe killed Trooper First Class Chadwick LeGroy, 38, of Marietta. But they have not released his name or given any motive for why the suspect would have shot the trooper, who died after only two years on the job.
The incident began as a routine traffic stop, Georgia State Patrol’s spokesman Mr. Gordy Wright said.
Shortly after 11 p.m. trooper LeCroy, 38, of Marietta, tried to pull over a 2007 Mazda on Bolton Road near James Jackson Parkway for a broken headlight, Mr. Wright said.
After a brief pursuit, the Mazda crashed at the intersection of St. Paul Avenue and Hightower Road, the spokesman said.
It’s unclear if the men exchanged words before the suspect pulled the trigger.
"That's part of the investigation,” Wright has said. Police don’t know if there was a struggle or if the trooper was approaching the vehicle and the suspect opened fire. "We're just not sure."
The suspect shot the trooper twice in the face and drove off in his patrol car, which Atlanta police found a few blocks away on Gun Club Drive, Mr. Wright said.
A short time later Atlanta and Cobb County police arrested the suspect nearby. They also found the gun believed to have been used in the killing, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Trooper LeCroy, who had a wife and two sons, died on the way to Grady Memorial Hospital. The 2008 GSP Trooper School graduate is the 27th trooper to be killed in the line of duty in the patrol’s 73-year history and the first killed by gunfire since May 1975.
Comments