An overnight SWAT standoff on Lakeview Lane off Browns Bridge Road in Hall County ended with a suspect shot and wounded and facing a list of criminal charges.
Just after 12:30 a.m. Hall County 911 received a call alerting them to a domestic situation at a residence on Lakeview Lane. Patrol deputies arrived at the scene and found the suspect, identified as Randy Berry, 34, armed with an ax and holding a woman hostage inside the residence.
As Berry’s threats escalated and negotiations were failing, SWAT members were called to the scene.
“Negotiators learned Berry had also armed himself with a torch and had poured gasoline on himself, the victim and throughout the home, threatening to set the house on fire,” says Hall County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer B.J. Williams. “He also had nailed the front door of the residence shut.”
According to Williams, just after 4 a.m., Berry stopped communicating with authorities. At that time, SWAT commanders authorized the use of force to end the standoff. Berry was shot in the arm and SWAT members entered the residence to rescue the hostage and render aid to Berry.
The woman was not physically injured, but she was taken to the hospital for observation.
Berry was treated and released and taken to the Hall County Detention Center where he was charged with making terroristic threats, false imprisonment, obstruction, and reckless conduct, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation says.
The Hall County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident that led to the shooting. The GBI will conduct an independent investigation of the officer-involved shooting. Once complete, the case file will be given to the Northeastern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review, says GBI spokesperson Natalie Ammons.
This is the 68th officer-involved shooting the GBI has been requested to investigate in 2022.
