FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A family is asking for answers after an off-duty sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man who allegedly broke into his home.
11Alive spoke exclusively to his family as they try to learn more about what happened in the moments before he was killed. The family heard about the shooting over the weekend but had no idea it was their loved one who had been killed. They said they are devastated at this loss.
"Just an all around good person, he would help anybody, so this is devastating. We want to know what happened," Motanique "Monei" Sutton said.
Motanique Sutton said she was the one to take the call from the Georgie Bureau of Investigation stating her favorite uncle, Bobby Lee Sutton, had been killed.
"To know him is to love him. He was no stranger to anybody," she continued.
The GBI said a Fulton County sheriff's deputy was returning home from work late Saturday night when he got a Ring camera alert showing a man breaking into his home on Springdale Drive. When the deputy arrived home, the GBI said he saw the man from the video leaving the home with tools.
The deputy, who was still in uniform, followed the man as he walked away into the woods, according to the GBI. During a confrontation, the deputy shot him.
"Nobody's perfect, we know that. But I need to know, was his shooting justified for my uncle?" Motanique said.
The Sutton family said they want to know more about that confrontation and what led up to the gunfire.
"You get out of your car and you follow him in a wooded area and you shoot him down like he's nobody, like he has no family or nothing. That's not fair. That's not justice," she said.
Motanique said her uncle Bobby, a father of two, was a caring and funny person who kept their family laughing. His body was released to the family Tuesday afternoon. They said the Medical Examiner's office told them he was shot three times in the chest. The family set up a fundraiser to help pay for funeral arrangements.
11Alive has reached out to GBI for more information on this investigation. We’re told there are no new details to release at this time.