GBI IDs man, woman killed in officer-involved shooting in Alto

GBI conducts independent investigation

Joshua Everett Emmett, seen here in a prison photo from the Georgia Department of Corrections, had been out of prison for nearly a year. He and his girlfriend, Meagan Victoria Feaster, died in an officer-involved shooting at Emmett's Alto residence on July 16, 2024. (GDC photo)

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has identified the two people killed in an officer-involved shooting in northern Banks County. The Tuesday shooting claimed the lives of Joshua Everett Emmett, 45, of Alto, and Meagan Victoria Feaster, 33, of Forsyth, according to the GBI.

The two were shot and killed after Forsyth County deputies entered Emmett’s home on Cedar Drive in Alto to serve an arrest warrant. WSB-TV reports the warrant was for an alleged probation violation.

Emmett was a registered sex offender who spent over 11 years in prison for statutory rape, child molestation, and sexual battery, GDC prison records show. He was released from the Wheeler Correctional Facility near Savannah in September.

Feaster was Emmett’s girlfriend, according to information Now Habersham obtained at the scene.

Timeline

The GBI crime scene truck at the residence after the officer-involved shooting on Cedar Drive in Banks County. (Jerry Neace/NowHabersham.com)

According to the GBI, Forsyth County sheriff’s deputies went to Emmett’s home around 9:30 a.m. on July 16 to serve the warrant. When deputies entered the home around 11:05 a.m., the deadly shooting occurred.

No deputies were injured in the incident, a GBI press release says.

“Banks County Sheriff’s Office deputies were also at the scene to provide support but were not directly involved in the incident,” says GBI Public Affairs Director Nelly Miles.

The GBI Crime Scene Unit and multiple local law enforcement agencies spent Tuesday processing the scene. The Banks County Sheriff’s Office requested the GBI’s assistance, which is standard protocol whenever there is an officer-involved shooting.

Crime scene tape marks the outside of the residence on Cedar Drive in Alto, GA, where two people died in an officer-involved shooting on July 16, 2024. (Jerry Neace/NowHabersham.com)
GBI investigators examine the exterior of the trailer after the officer-involved shooting on Cedar Drive in Alto on July 16, 2024. (Jerry Neace/NowHabersham.com)

Miles says a GBI Medical Examiner will perform autopsies on the bodies. The GBI will turn the case over to the Banks County District Attorney’s Office for review once the investigation is complete.

Tuesday’s incident in Alto was the 44th officer-involved shooting in Georgia this year.