Banks County deputy wounded in shootout OK; kidnap suspect, his victim remain hospitalized

Wayne Ford, Athens Banner-Herald
·1 min read
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab vehicle is parked outside a Banks Crossing motel in Commerce where a deputy, a kidnapping suspect and his victim were wounded in a shootout Tuesday.
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab vehicle is parked outside a Banks Crossing motel in Commerce where a deputy, a kidnapping suspect and his victim were wounded in a shootout Tuesday.

A Banks County sheriff’s deputy wounded Tuesday in an exchange of gunfire with a kidnapping suspect is doing well and currently working on administrative duty, Banks County Sheriff Carlton Speed said Wednesday.

The shootout occurred about 2 a.m. in the parking lot of the Super 8 Motel at Banks Crossing in Commerce, where the deputy found a man and woman asleep in a car, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The deputy checked the license plate number and discovered the car’s owner, Robert M. Brodie Jr., 32, was wanted in Henderson, N.C., after a woman was kidnapped.

Vance County (N.C.) Sheriff Curtis Brame told WRAL TV 5 that Brodie broke into a Henderson home on Monday night and kidnapped the woman.

The GBI said that as deputies tried to awaken the two in the car, Brodie pulled out a gun and shot the woman, then he and two deputies exchanged fire.

Brodie was shot several times and a deputy was shot in the hand an in his vest. The name of the deputy was not released.

Speed said Brodie and the woman remain hospitalized in stable condition.

According to Henderson Daily Dispatch news reports, Brodie was charged in a murder and robbery of a man in 2009, but in 2020 pleaded guilty to accessory to murder for his role in the crime and received credit for time served as he had been in jail since his original arrest.

Brodie will face charges in Banks County related to the shootout and faces burglary and kidnapping charges in Henderson, N.C., a city north of Raleigh.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Banks County deputy OK; 2 others remain hospitalized after shootout