The GBI is investigating an officer-involved shooting that happened at a weekend traffic safety checkpoint in Clayton. No one was injured in the shooting. The Clayton Police Department requested the GBI conduct an independent investigation into the matter.
The preliminary information indicates that on August 5, Clayton Police Department officers and Rabun County Sheriff’s Office deputies were conducting the checkpoint around Hwy. 76 West and Meadow Stream Lane. Around 11:15 p.m., a man, later identified as Lars Anton Rudow, age 51, of Watkinsville, stopped his car on the road before reaching the checkpoint.
“As a Clayton police officer approached the car, Rudow accelerated toward the officer, grazing the officer in the lower leg,” says GBI spokesperson Lydia Bullard. “Rudow then drove quickly toward the other officers and deputies at the checkpoint.”
A Clayton police officer shot once at the car, Bullard says. Officers and deputies chased Rudow for less than a mile before he crashed off the road.
Rudow was arrested and charged with DUI refusal and five counts of aggravated assault on a police officer. He was taken to the Rabun County Detention Center.
The GBI will conduct an independent investigation. Once complete, the case file will be given to the Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review, says Bullard.
This is the 60th officer-involved shooting the GBI has been requested to investigate in 2023.
