Police Fatally Shoot Knife-Wielding Man On I-75 S In Atlanta

ATLANTA, GA — A 39-year-old man died in a police shooting after being accused of stabbing a passenger on a Greyhound bus and charging at officers with a knife Thursday on Interstate 75 southbound near Cleveland Avenue.

Atlanta Police said officers were dispatched around 1 a.m. to the scene, where they saw the accused armed man running through I-75 traffic lanes.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the probe's lead agency, said the man stabbed another passenger on the Florida-bound Greyhound bus before the bus stopped on the interstate's shoulder. The injury was non-fatal, the GBI said.

The man then exited the bus "and began acting erratically," the GBI said. As he walked away from the bus, police engaged the man, and he attempted to run away from the scene, the GBI said.

Atlanta Police said officers tried multiple de-escalation efforts to disarm the man, but he continued walking into the path of traffic.

The GBI said officers chased the man as he refused to comply with commands. An attempt to tase the man was unsuccessful, the GBI said.

Verbal commands and a pepper spray attempt also failed, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said at a news conference.

"This was a very dangerous situation," he said.

The man climbed over a divider wall onto the Cleveland exit and resumed ignoring the officers' commands as they approached him, the GBI said.

Then, he charged at the officers with a knife in his hand, and five officers shot him, the GBI said.

Atlanta Police said the man had been behaving aggressively as he moved toward the officers before they shot him.

The man was pronounced dead at Grady Memorial Hospital, police said. He was not identified, pending next-of-kin notification.

He will be taken to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

"This is never the outcome that the Atlanta Police Department wants," Schierbaum said. "We want there to be safe and peaceful reactions to all these encounters."

No officers or drivers were injured in the shooting, police said.

Once the GBI's investigation is completed, the case file will be turned over to the Fulton County District Attorney's Office for review.