The GBI is investigating an officer-involved shooting in Athens late Friday night that left one man dead.
Preliminary information indicates that on Friday, January 6, at 11:45 p.m., Athens-Clarke County police officers located a stolen car in the driveway of a home off Smokey Road in Athens. Three police officers tried to locate anyone at the residence to investigate further. Two officers encountered two men in a shed in the yard. One of the men, identified as Clinton Eli Burkhalter, age 42, of Athens, had his hands behind his back, the GBI says in a press release.
According to the GBI, Burkhalter refused to show the officers his hands and then put a gun to his head. As the officers took cover, Burkhalter fired several shots into the ceiling of the shed.
“Burkhalter then began coming out of the building with the gun pointed at the officers. The two officers shot Burkhalter. He fell to the ground, but still had the gun in his hand. The officer’s maintained cover until additional units arrived,” the GBI says.
Burkhalter was pronounced dead at the scene. The GBI Medical Examiner’s Office will perform an autopsy on him.
The officers were not injured.
As part of its standard operating procedure, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and requested a criminal investigation. ACCPD’s Office of Professional Standards has opened an administrative investigation, and the officers have been placed on administrative leave pending an initial review of the incident, says the police department’s public information officer Lt. Shaun Barnett.
The GBI will conduct an independent investigation. Once complete, the case file will be given to the Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review.
