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Video: Man fires shotgun at Ga. deputies in jail parking lot before OIS

After speaking with Gwinnett County deputies, the man returned to his car, placed his child inside, then retrieved a shotgun and aimed it at the officers

By Henri Hollis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office has released a heavily edited but detailed video that provides context around an Oct. 7 incident in which deputies exchanged shots with a gunman in their own parking lot.

Emmanuel Patrick Bearden, 44, of Peachtree Corners, was taken to the hospital after he was shot by deputies early last month, the GBI said. The incident was captured on video from a variety of angles thanks to security cameras at the sheriff’s office and body-worn cameras used by deputies. The video shared by the sheriff’s office Monday pieces together video clips from multiple different sources to show how the shooting happened.

“The released video has been edited to include markers that highlight key moments of the incident, with blurring applied to protect the integrity of this ongoing investigation,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

NOTE: The video contains graphic content. It was edited and released by the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office and was not produced by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The video begins with Bearden’s arrival at the jail, where the sheriff’s office said his behavior appeared strange. He can be seen wearing body armor as he speaks to deputies just inside the facility’s door. He is accompanied by his young daughter, who is wearing a T-shirt and a diaper.

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Deputies stopped Bearden before he passed through the secure entrance, where visitors must walk through a metal detector and put their belongings through an X-ray machine. Bearden appears to be telling deputies he is there to file charges against his mother accusing her of hiring bounty hunters to kill him. He quickly becomes agitated and raises his voice, then apologizes when a deputy tells him to calm down. Bearden then claims his mother is abusing his grandfather.

The video then cuts to Bearden leaving, at which point he picks up his daughter as he continues to talk. Bearden’s and his daughter’s faces were obscured by the sheriff’s office, so it’s not clear if he’s speaking to his daughter or a deputy when he says, in a relatively cheerful tone, “Don’t look at me like that. You feeling squirrely, buddy?”

After Bearden returns to his car, a security camera captures him putting his daughter in the back seat and then moving to the front passenger door and pulling out a shotgun.

Deputies react by moving civilians to the back of their office and into cover. Bearden holds his hands above his head momentarily, then grabs his gun from the top of the car and takes cover behind it. The video does not make clear what caused Bearden to suddenly switch into a combative posture.

Various video angles show deputies surrounding Bearden and exchanging gunfire with him. The video also shows the efforts deputies undertook to keep the public out of harm’s way as shots were fired.

Officials previously said that Bearden’s daughter was not injured and was released to family members. His injuries were considered critical when he was taken to the hospital, but the sheriff’s office did not provide an update on his condition. He has not been booked into the Gwinnett jail.

The GBI is conducting an independent investigation into the shooting.

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