3 months ago
A Houston County sheriff's deputy accidentally shot himself in the finger while struggling with a runaway shoplifting suspect in Centerville, a GBI agent says.
Deputy Derek Collins suffered minor injuries in the shooting, which was part of a wild chase from the Centerville police station into a neighborhood.
Craig Rotter,assistant agent in charge of the GBI's Perry office, said Friday night that the suspect himself was also shot,
Anthony Cooper, Centerville's public safety chief identified the suspect as 18-year-old Ryan Rumph of Marshallville.
Rotter said Rumph was in stable condition in the Medical Center of Central Georgia Friday night but will be taken to the Houston County jail when released from the hospital.
It all started around 1 p.m. at the Centerville police headquarters
Rotter gave this account of the case:
A Centerville officer arrested a shoplifting suspect at the Galleria Mall and was returning him to police headquarters.
As the officer removed him from the cruiser, Rotter said, he struggled with her, tried to take her gun away and escaped with her Taser.
The officer called for assistance and the Houston County sheriff's office, Warner Robins police and other agencies responded.
Collins, the Houston deputy, was searching a backyard when the man jumped him, hit him in the head and tried to grab a rifle that Collins had slung over his shoulder, Rotter said.
Collins had his left hand on the rifle and fired his pistol with the right hand, striking his left index finger, Rotter said.
A second Centerville officer fired at the man, who ran away again.
Rotter says the man entered the home of an elderly couple and tried to take their car keys. The resident, who is over 70, dialed 911 and wrestled with the intruder, who ran away again.
By then, officers had surrounded the home and arrested the man as he left.
Rotter says witnesses reported the man was shot in the side, but investigators aren't sure which officer shot him.
Houston County Sheriff Cullen Talton said Collins lost a piece of one finger and is being treated at the Houston Medical Center. He said the deputy's injuries were not life-threatening.
Talton said he's asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to help with the case.
The nearby Centerville Elementary School was on Code Red during the chase and arrest.
City administrator Patrick Eidson had no comment.
