Posted: 8/11/2005 6:35:57 PM EDT
www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=67641 Pine Lake Officer Shot and Killed
A man shot a police officer to death, ran inside a post office and then apparently killed himself following a traffic stop gone bad Thursday, authorities said. A witness said the gunman was holding the officer hostage when he shot him point-blank in front of the building.
Gunfire was exchanged between the shooter and another officer before the gunman fled into the post office and it was surrounded by police. All four postal employees had managed to escape through the back and it was not immediately known if any customers were inside at the time, said Paul Krenn, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The post office had been open when the shooting occurred around 5 p.m. A dozen or more police cars could be seen in television helicopter footage in the streets outside the post office.
The slain officer worked for the Pine Lake Police Department, DeKalb County Police Chief Louis Graham said. The officer was identified by DeKalb County Police spokesman Corey Hughes as Francis Ortega. Hughes said Ortega was a part-time officer but did not know his age nor how long he had been with the department.
The gunman had died of a gunshot wound, Krenn said. “It appears to be self-inflicted,” he said.
“I was terrified. I was afraid the perpetrator was going to see me and come hijack my car and try to take me. I just put my head down,” said Susan Boozer, who witnessed the shooting as she pulled up to the building after getting off work at a nearby hardware store to check her personal post office box.
Boozer, 53, said she saw blue lights and “thought it was just somebody getting stopped for a speeding ticket.”
Then, she said she saw two Pine Lake police officers near a parked blue SUV, one with his gun drawn. Then, she saw the man with his arm around the chest of one of the officers and shouting at the other “’Go on and shoot. Go on and shoot.”’
The man then shot at the officer who was pointing the gun at him, and then he shot the one he was holding, she said.
“He was holding him when he shot him. He was a very angry man or hyped up on something,” Boozer said.
Gunfire then ensued between the man and the other officer. Boozer guessed that about 10 shots were fired before the man entered the post office.
The gunman then fled into the post office. The post office was closed for the day, but the front door was open so that customers could check their post office boxes.
“We heard shots coming inside, hitting metal and stuff and I looked out and I saw the guy shooting out the door and everything and he was moving back and forth, banging on the doors and stuff to try and get in there with us, but everything was locked up,” said postal employee John Strock.
Then the shooting ended.
“He shot himself. After I saw him lying on the floor there, I saw there was a big pool of blood down there around his head, and I went and opened the other door, and I looked out there, and I saw him lying on his back, saw where the bullet went in his head,” Strock said.
Krenn confirmed that the incident had stemmed from a traffic stop, but no other details were immediately available.
“It hits very, very close to home. Crime does not really hit Pine Lake, crime does not hit a mile from my house, it’s very scary and it makes me a little bit nervous to know that those are the kind of people that are now in our area,” Laura Spikes, a Pine Lake resident, said.
The Associated Press contributed this report.
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From what I heard on the radio tonight, it sounded as if the gunman had managed to somehow gain control over Officer Ortega. He was holding him with the gun to his head, taunting the other officer to shoot. He then shot Officer Ortega in the head execution style. RIP Officer Ortega
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