Cobb police shoot and kill man after chase on Windy Hill Road

By Mark Woolsey

Cobb police shot and killed a man who fled a traffic stop and then crashed his car Friday night.

Police say it began with police trying to stop a Cadillac SUV driving recklessly on Windy Hill Road. They say 43-year-old Gregory Hill Jr. sped away and crashed near Windy Hill and Osborne Court.

Police say the suspect refused to exit the vehicle and fired a shot with approaching police then returning fire and backing away. The suspect, identified as 43-year-old Gregory Hill Jr. of Austell, allegedly produced a weapon after 90 minutes of attempted negotiations. He was hit at least once by police gunfire and pronounced dead at the scene.

Hill’s body was taken to the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s office for an autopsy.

Cobb Police say no officers were hurt in the course of the chase, crash and standoff.

 The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been requested to conduct an independent investigation.  

The GBI’s role in officer-involved shootings

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation routinely investigates the shooting of individuals by police officers, as well as any time an officer discharges a firearm while on duty, at the request of the police agency involved in the shooting.

Natalie Ammons, the Deputy Director of the GBI’s Office of Public Affairs, explained to us how the system works.

Police agencies are not required to request outside investigation of officer-involved shootings, and there is no formal agreement between the GBI and local police departments.

But police agencies make the request so that an independent agency does the investigation in an incident involving their own officers.

The investigations are carried out by Special Agents in a regional office within the area where the police agency is located. Cobb County, and much of the rest of metro Atlanta, is in the GBI’s Region 10, based in Conyers.

In Region 10, officer involved shootings and corruption investigations are the primary investigations Special Agents do, while in more rural areas with fewer police resources the agents handle a wider range of criminal investigations.

There is no special unit or division that conducts the investigation of officer involved shootings.

The announcements of the investigations can be found at the GBI’s press release web page.