A second Georgia police officer died Thursday, a day after being shot alongside a fellow officer who was a lifelong friend, and the hunt for the suspected gunman ended when a SWAT team found the fugitive dead — apparently by his own hand — inside a home where he was hiding.
A second Georgia police officer died Thursday, a day after being shot alongside a fellow officer who was a lifelong friend, and the hunt for the suspected gunman ended when a SWAT team found the fugitive dead — apparently by his own hand — inside a home where he was hiding.
Officer Jody Smith initially clung to life after being gravely wounded Wednesday when the university officer went to help his friend, Americus Officer Nicholas Smarr, respond to a domestic dispute call at an apartment in rural Americus, about 130 miles south of Atlanta.
Both men were shot. Smarr was killed and Smith was airlifted in critical condition to a hospital in Macon. The university that employed Smith announced Thursday evening that he had died.
“Officer Smith showed extreme bravery in the line of duty as he responded to a call for backup,” Georgia Southwestern University President Charles Patterson said in a statement.
News of Smith’s death came a few hours after the hunt for the suspected gunman ended.
Police offered a $70,000 reward for information leading to the capture of 32-year-old Minquell Lembrick. A telephone tip sent them to a home where the suspect was said to be hiding. SWAT officers emerged from the home shortly after entering. Americus Police Chief Mark Scott told a news conference they found Lembrick’s body inside. He said the first officers on scene heard a gunshot inside before the SWAT team arrived.
Lembrick died from “what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Scott said.
Lembrick had an outstanding arrest warrant charging him with kidnapping and other counts when Smarr and Smith encountered him Wednesday at an apartment complex where a domestic dispute had been reported. But the officers didn’t know whom they were dealing with when they responded to the 911 call.