The man shot to death by police July 12 after allegedly opening fire on Chamblee and Brookhaven officers has been identified as Marcos Reyes, 28, of Forest Park.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the killing, two Chamblee officers and one Brookhaven officer shot at Reyes. It is unknown at this stage which officers’ shots actually hit and killed Reyes, according to Brookhaven Police Department spokesperson Sgt. David Snively.
According to the GBI, the officers who fired the shots were Jared Nuttall of the Brookhaven Police Department and Oliver Dukes and Ricardo Ricketts of the Chamblee Police Department. Reyes was Hispanic; the BPD officer is White and the CPD officers are Black, according to a GBI report.
Nuttall is on administrative leave pending an Internal Affairs unit review of the shooting, which is BPD’s standard practice in use-of-force cases that seriously injure or kill someone, according to Snively. It is BPD’s first case of lethal use of force, he said.
“This is the first instance in our almost exactly seven years as an agency that a BPD use of force has resulted in the death of a suspect,” said Snively.
The GBI will investigate the killing and give its findings to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office for legal review. The GBI frequently acts as an independent investigator of the killing of suspects by police officers and in this case was invited to investigate by both local police forces.
According to BPD’s account, Reyes was spotted with a rifle in the parking lot of a business on Shallowford Terrace near Buford Highway in Chamblee. CPD called for support from other agencies, including BPD. Reyes allegedly left the vehicle, stepped onto Buford Highway, and fired at officers, hitting a CPD vehicle. At least one shot of return fire from police officers struck and killed him, according to BPD.
The fatal shooting comes amid increased scrutiny of police use-of-force procedures due to the national wave of Black Lives Matter protests that have followed the May killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. In response to those protests, BPD created a “Transparency Project” social media campaign about use of force and other policies, and the Reporter recently examined its use of force records as well. BPD also dedicated its annual fundraiser 5K run to Floyd.