An Atlanta-area police officer was shot and critically injured on Monday night after officers showed up at the wrong house while responding to a call about a suspicious person.
According to DeKalb County police Chief Cedric Alexander, the homeowner was also shot in the leg and his dog was killed, in what is being seen as "complicated shooting". The chief said that officers fired their weapons, but it was not clear if the homeowner had a gun.
The police department would be handling the investigation since it did not involve a fatality, but because of the unusual situation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will be assisting, said Alexander. "We did respond to the wrong residence tonight and then these other circumstances unfolded," he said, according to ABC News.
At approximately 7:30 p.m. EDT, officers responded to a call for a burglary in progress, but they went to the wrong address because the caller gave only a description of a "gray brick house" without a street number, Alexander said.
According to Alexander, the situation happened like this: A neighborhood resident called 911 at 7:34 p.m. to report a suspicious person and described a home to the dispatcher. Three officers responded to a house that fit the description the caller gave 911. The officers went to the back of the home and found that a screen door and a rear door were unlocked.
"That in and of itself would probably suggest to anyone that it is possible that there could be intruders inside, but it turned out not to be the case. Somewhere at the rear of that home, some things happened that have yet to be determined. There was gunfire, I just cannot tell you who fired and who did not," Alexander said, according to wsvn.com.
Investigations are underway to determine whether there was a burglary at the home where the suspicious person was spotted. "Our thoughts and prayers go out the homeowner. And our thoughts and prayers go out to the officer who suffered a severe, critical injury here tonight ... We just hope both of them recover well," Alexander said according to Fox News.
