CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A former colleague of the Clayton County officer shot in the line of duty Wednesday night said his friend had recently returned home from a vacation.
Officer Demika Lloyd was responding to a call about a person being suicidal when she was injured. At last check Thursday night, she was still in critical condition.
"Everything is still kind of surreal right now," said Ronnie Perkins. He said he met Lloyd in the military over a decade ago. They worked together in the National Guard.
He said that although she joined the Clayton County Police Department a year and a half ago – she was still helping soldiers.
“She loves what she do," Perkins said. "One weekend a month, she would drive down to Savannah and cook for the soldiers down there."
He described her as a caring person and loving mom.
“She’s very family-oriented, especially with her daughter. She’s going to call her baby even though she’s like 14 years old," he said.
Police were called to Newbury Drive just before the 10 p.m. hour Wednesday to respond to a call about a person who was suicidal. Police said they got three different calls about the woman, who was later identified as 25-year-old Aiyanah Pryor. A final caller said they heard multiple shots fired and that an officer was down in the yard. It was Lloyd who was injured. Pryor then drove to Atlanta where she was shot by an APD officer, authorities said.
Both of them were taken to different hospitals.
"Stuff can change in the blink of an eye. It hits different when you actually know the person and known them for a long time and actually still communicate with them," Perkins said. "Everybody that she worked with, we’re praying for her, that she would make a full recovery."
Clayton County Police said they have a social worker to respond to mental health calls, but Pryor's family said the social worker never showed up at their home. 11Alive asked Clayton County Police about the family's concerns, but a spokesperson said they're not going to comment about that at this time.
Departments across Georgia are changing their approach when it comes to mental health calls. In Gwinnett County, the police department and behavioral health center are working together. They have a behavioral health responder on duty seven days a week.
Meanwhile – Cobb, Gwinnett, Forsyth and Athens-Clarke counties have co-responding teams to help. Both Athens-Clarke County and Cobb are also working on adding a social worker to the dispatch team to handle mental health-related calls.
APD is looking into this same idea.