Video shows police fatally shoot motorist in Marietta, Georgia, after brief chase
Georgia police shot and killed a motorist who had been "driving erratically" before leading officers on a brief chase near Atlanta, authorities said Thursday.
The deadly confrontation started at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday when "a Cobb County Police Department officer observed a vehicle being driven recklessly" near Powder Springs Road and State Route 120A in Marietta, about 20 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
The driver, identified as 28-year-old Austell resident Devonte Dawayne Brown, "initially pulled over, but then refused to comply and sped away," according to the GBI.
Police and Cobb County Sheriff’s deputies chased Brown and at "one point, the officers attempted to box in the vehicle," the state authorities said.
"During this incident, Brown attempted to get away and hit multiple police vehicles," the GBI statement continued. "As police officers were trying to take Brown into custody, a Cobb County Police Department officer fired his gun, striking Brown."
The driver was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Monica Brown, the driver's biological aunt and adoptive mom, said she's troubled by the video and believes her loved one didn't need to be shot.
"I feel like this was excessive force," she told NBC News on Thursday. "He couldn't go anywhere. They surrounded him."
The biological aunt said she's already spoken to an internal affairs detective with Cobb County police and will speak with state investigators shortly.
"I told him, 'Was this necessary?'" Brown said she told the detective. "'Was there any way you could have de-escalated the situation where we could still have him with us?'"
While a "handgun was found in the vehicle," the GBI statement did not specify whether Brown ever picked up the weapon or pointed it at police before he was killed.
GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles declined to elaborate.
"It is still very early in the case so at this time, there is no other information to report at this time as the case is under investigation," she said.
A representative for the Cobb County Police Department declined comment and referred all questions to state authorities, who are taking over the investigation.
Devonte Brown was a truck driver and father of four young children, according to his aunt.
