ATLANTA — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is stepping in after an off-duty Atlanta Police officer shot and killed a man at a shopping plaza in the Buckhead neighborhood, authorities said.
Police said they were called to the 2700 block of Lenox Road Wednesday just before 3 p.m. Heavy police presence was seen by the shopping plaza next to Lenox Village Apartments, right outside the Roasters Rotisserie restaurant.
In an evening update, Atlanta Police said an off-duty officer working at one business in the plaza for an "approved extra job" then called to another business at the plaza. He encountered the man inside the business and police said the two engaged in a discussion that turned into a struggle involving the officer's gun.
In an update of their own, the GBI identified the man as 30-year-old Rogers Kyaruzi of Lithonia. The added that he had been "expressing odd behavior prior to the incident" and followed someone inside the restaurant, where he began causing a disturbance.
According to a news release from the Atlanta Police Department, the off-duty officer requested backup. The agency said the struggle lasted for several minutes before the officer discharged the firearm, shooting the Kyaruzi.
Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr., with the department's criminal investigations division, said the man was taken to a nearby hospital but died from his injuries. At this time, the officer is not believed to have been injured in what police are calling "an extended struggle."
"It was only the officer and the perpetrator," Hampton said to reporters Wednesday evening. He also clarified that the off-duty officer was in uniform and was wearing a body camera.
11Alive's Paola Suro spoke with a witness who did not want to be identified. She said she heard the gunfire go off from inside a restaurant.
"The officer was trying to resuscitate him," she said, adding the man was originally in the plaza asking for help.
APD said its internal investigations unit will also be looking into the matter as the GBI investigates the shooting.