Americus, GA– Police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed the suspect in the shooting of 2 officers died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police said they were led to by a tip; negotiations with suspect failed. The deceased suspect in the shooting of 2 Americus, GA officers had a 32-page long criminal history
Officer killed in Americus, Georgia shooting has been identified as 25-year-old Nicholas Smarr.
Georgia Southwestern State University officer Jodi Smith was seriously injured.
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(c) 2016, Breaking911 / Joe Ruch
Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 2:52 PM
One police officer was killed and another was seriously injured in a shooting near the campus of a Georgia university on Tuesday, locking down the campus and prompting a manhunt, according to authorities.
The shooting took place not far from Georgia Southwestern State University, a school in Americus, Georgia, about 150 miles south of Atlanta, officials said.
Both officers were responding to a call about a domestic dispute at an apartment complex at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, said Americus Police Chief Mark A. Scott.
The two officers – one with the Americus Police Department, the other a public safety officer with the school – encountered a suspect outside the apartment complex and were shot there, Scott told reporters during a briefing.
The Americus officer was killed, while the university police officer was critically injured and flown to Macon, Georgia, for treatment, he said.
“There are no words to express the pain and the sorrow that we as a family here in Americus feel,” Scott said.
Law enforcement officials in Georgia said they are seeking Minguel Lembrick as the suspect in the shooting. According to a law enforcement official who asked not to be identified discussing the shooting, Lembrick had been known to police. (Some media accounts also spelled his first name as “Minguell.”)
![[ALBANY POLICE]](https://breaking911.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/a917f132-e576-4c0e-8c41-d1addb4af7a1-large16x9_Shootingsuspect.jpg)
The shooting comes in the waning weeks of 2016, a year that has been deadlier for law enforcement officers than 2015.
While the number of police officers fatally shot by suspects fell last year – and remains far below what it was in recent decades – that number has spiked again in 2016, fueled in part by a series of ambush attacks in cities like Dallas and Baton Rouge.
Through Tuesday, 62 officers had been shot and killed this year, up significantly from the 38 officers fatally shot at the same point last year.
While ambush killings have helped worsen that toll, many officers have been fatally wounded doing what can be considered routine police work – like responding to a domestic call or serving an eviction notice – and officers in Philadelphia, San Antonio and Miami Gardens, Florida, were sitting in their cars.
University officials, in a statement posted online, urged people to remain sheltered in place due to the shooting.
“Students, faculty and staff should remain in their present location until further notice,” the school said in an emergency alert.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Mark Berman
