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Man killed after pulling gun on MARTA police trying to serve citation, GBI investigates

By FOX 5 Atlanta Digital Team
Updated  February 25, 2023 5:12pm EST
MARTA
FOX 5 Atlanta

Officer shoot and killed man inside North Avenue MARTA station

A MARTA police officer shot and killed a man after getting into fight over a citation on Friday at the North Avenue MARTA station.

ATLANTA - A man is dead after being shot by a MARTA police officer at a train station on Friday. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is now independently looking into the use of deadly force in this officer-involved shooting.

It happened around 4:30 p.m. at the North Avenue MARTA station on West Peachtree Street. MARTA Police Chief Scott Kreher say two plainclothes officers approached a man after spotting him attempt to smoke marijuana on the train platform.

The MARTA Customer Code of Conduct from 2022 states smoking any kind of tobacco, electronic cigarettes or vaporizers in a bus, rail car, rail station or intermodal bus station is prohibited.

The violation only required a citation, but when the officer approached the 23-year-old man, the police chief said he started fight with them. As officers were working to take the man down, which included the use of a taser, the chief said the victim pulled out a gun.

One of the officers then drew their service weapon and shot the man, Chief Kreher said.

The man, whose name has not been released, was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital where he later died.

Neither of the officers were injured.

Chief Kreher said the man’s gun was not fired during the encounter.

Train service was stopped to the station for a couple of hours while investigators combed over the scene. 

The GBI said this is the 15th officer-involved shooting they have been requested to investigate in 2023.

Why wouldn’t the officer arrest the man for using marijuana?

Several municipalities in Georgia have decriminalized the use of marijuana if possession is under an ounce. 

The Atlanta City Council made that move in a unanimous vote on Oct. 2, 2017. Possession went from jail time to a $75 fine within the municipality.

Even if an officer is not part of the Atlanta Police Department, they have the option to enforce the local law or the state law that requires an arrest and possible jail time.

Other metro Atlanta jurisdictions that have decriminalized marijuana include: Clarkston, South Fulton, Forest Park, Chamblee, and Athens.