All four suspects wanted in connection with the shooting death of a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia are now in custody, authorities said Monday.
Nicolas Blane Dixon, a 28-year-old sheriff’s deputy in Hall County, northeast of Atlanta, was shot and killed Sunday after trying to stop a stolen vehicle suspected to have been involved in multiple burglaries over the weekend, Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch told reporters.
Four 17-year-old suspects have been arrested — two on Sunday and two on Monday.
One was shot and wounded by deputies and a second was found hiding under a house, according to authorities. Two other suspects were arrested Monday at their homes, the Hall County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Couch said Dixon, a three-year veteran of the Hall County Sheriff’s Office, was a husband and a father of two boys: a 9-year-old and a 4-month-old
Dixon and other deputies were pursuing a vehicle, which ended up crashing, and several suspects began to run, Couch said.
One suspect, Hector Garcia-Solis, 17, was followed and refused Dixon’s verbal commands to show his hands. Garcia-Solis went behind a building and reappeared, opening fire, Couch said.
Dixon was shot below his ballistic vest and transported in a patrol car to a hospital, where he later died.
Other deputies opened fire and Garcia-Solis was shot. His condition was not immediately known.
Garcia-Solis faces a felony murder charge, Hall County Sheriff’s Office said.
“He was out there in the darkness while most of us slept,” Couch said of Dixon. “It was his job and he loved doing it.”
A K9 officer tracked a second suspect to a residence in the area, and he was taken into custody after being found hiding under that house. Brayan Omar Cruz, 17, faces a charge of being a party to a crime of felony murder, the sheriff’s office said.
Two other suspects, who were also in the vehicle, fled the scene at the time, authorities said.
London Clements, 17, and Eric Edgardo Velazquez, 17, were arrested Monday, the sheriff’s office said. Velazquez was apprehended at a residence in north Hall County. Clements was arrested at his home, authorities said.
Each also faces of a charge of being party to a crime of felony murder, the sheriff’s office said.
The four suspects are all residents of Hall County.
