Cell phone video shows chaos after Athens police fatally shoot armed man

ATHENS, Ga. - In Athens, a shootout early Sunday morning between Athens-Clarke County police and an armed suspect led to chaos outside a QuikTrip gas station on Lexington Road.

Cell phone video obtained by FOX 5 shows the tense scene after police shot 26-year-old Marquavious Sims — who was seen lying on the ground near about a dozen witnesses.

"Things don’t happen like that too often here in Athens," one witness told FOX 5. 

GBI officials say a caller reported that Sims was waving a "machine gun" outside a Verizon store just across the street.

When police arrived at the scene, Sims ran to the QuikTrip. Officers chased him and ordered him to put down the gun before they say Sims fired at them. They fired back, hitting him multiple times.

In the video, officers can be seen trying to render aid to Sims, who died later at the hospital.

One man, who did not want to be identified, tells FOX 5 he owns a store nearby. He says he was closing up when he heard the commotion outside.

"All of a sudden I heard a whole bunch of gunshots, it sounded like the Fourth of July … when I went around there, I noticed a Black man lying on the ground covered in blood," he recalled. "I will be praying for the family … it’s a crazy world that we live in today."

A woman who frequents the gas station said she was stunned to learn what happened.

"It was a surprise to me when I heard it … I’m like, wow, you know, so I just say I feel sorry for the family that just lost their loved one, you know ... could’ve been mine, could’ve been anybody’s," she said.

Sims’s body has been taken to the GBI’s crime lab for an autopsy. A spokesperson for the department said the two officers who shot him are on administrative leave pending the outcome of the GBI’s investigation.