The deadly shooting of a police officer responding to a shopping center in Georgia is the subject of an investigation, the authorities announced on Saturday.
A suspect, identified as Edward Espinoza, 23, was placed in police custody.
The police officer, who was not identified, responded to a report by a suspicious person in the parking lot of a pickleball club in Roswell on Friday evening, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a press release.
The officer approached the man, identified as Espinoza, for interrogation, said the office.
Espinoza would have pulled a handgun and fired several shots on the officer. The officer died in a hospital, said the office.
The police placed Espinoza in detention. He was accused of murder, serious assaults against an agent of the police and possession of a firearm to the commission of a crime.
Online files did not show if he had a lawyer to speak on his behalf of the accusations on Saturday. A call from the Associated Press at the Public Defender Office of the County of Fulton did not receive an answer.
The results of the survey will be given to the Office of the District District of Fulton county for any prosecution, said the GBI.
Roswell is located about 25 miles north of Atlanta.
In a press release, the Roswell police department said that more information will be published in the coming days, “but our priority is now to surround and support the family of our fallen officer and our mourning department”.
Friday evening, in a declaration on X, the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, said that he and his family prayed for the relatives of the Roswell police officer and asked the Georgians to keep the application of the law In their thoughts during this “sudden and heartbreaking loss”.
“We also ask that we were attentive to the heavy sacrifices of the application of the laws and that their families assure us all safe every day,” he added. “May the memory of this courageous man all inspire us in the days, weeks and years to come.”
