Overview
- Police say a department store employee reported a shoplifting and officers found a man in the Town Center at Cobb parking lot on Wednesday before he ran.
- Officers used a Taser multiple times and say the man produced a handgun, after which an officer shot him; the man was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead and no officers were injured.
- The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is leading the independent probe and will turn its findings over to the Cobb County district attorney for review.
- Several bystander videos of the parking-lot encounter and audible gunfire have circulated online, but officials have not confirmed details such as the number of shots or the exact sequence of events.
- Cobb County police warned drivers to avoid Ernest W Barrett Parkway and surrounding roads while the scene is processed, and the investigation is likely to shape local discussion about police use of force.