FRIENDSHIP
Four officers on desk duty
Four officers have returned to work at the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office after an officer-involved fatal shooting.
“They’re back to work, but they’re not in an enforcement capacity until our internal (investigation) is finished,” Chief Deputy Chris Wood said Sept. 26. Joe Radford was shot and killed Sept. 10 after an incident that began with him firing shots into a neighbor’s home on Radford Road, he added.
Sheriff Derrick Palmer said Radford fled into the darkness after firing at the home and later shot at deputies who responded to a 911 call. According to Palmer, Radford was shot and killed nearly an hour later, after he emerged from the darkness with a rifle and “aimed the weapon at the officers while making threats to shoot them.”
Radford died at the scene, while no officers or other individuals were injured. The officers directly involved were placed on paid leave, and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation was asked to investigate, which is standard practice. Wood said SBI investigations can often range from as little as three months to as much as 18 months, depending on the circumstances of a shooting.
Palmer said authorities do not have a motive as to why Radford shot at neighbors or deputies, but said his agency had “a history with this particular subject on similar incidents in the past.”
CLEVELAND, Ga.
Murphy man hurt in wreck
Two men were injured when they were ejected from an SUV that crashed southwest of Cleveland. Georgia troopers charged the driver with DUI, according to nowhabersham.com
According to the state patrol’s preliminary investigation, Jimmy Adrian Byron Alexander Pruitt, 21, of Cleveland, was driving a Toyota 4Runner north on Asbury Mill Road on the afternoon of Sept. 19 when he ran off the road. The vehicle traveled onto the west shoulder of the roadway and struck several trees.
Jeremy Ryan Goddard, 24, of Murphy, N.C., and Ishmen Mandingo Dorsey, 23, of Sautee Nacoochee, were both thrown from the vehicle. Pruitt was also injured, but initially refused treatment on the scene. He was taken to a hospital for treatment after being placed under arrest.
In addition to DUI, troopers charged Pruitt with failure to maintain lane and two counts of serious injury by vehicle, nowhabersham.com reported.
From staff reports.