ATLANTA — A Friday shootout in Fulton County left a suspected gunman dead and injured two officers, who were taken to the hospital, where one is in critical condition, officials said.

The shooting prompted a heavy police presence at a motel near the Fulton airport and blocked Fulton Industrial Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

The injured officers work for the Fulton County and South Fulton police departments.

The incident started when a Fulton officer initiated a traffic stop with a “suspicious person” who was jaywalking, South Fulton police Chief Keith Meadows said during a news conference. The GBI, which was asked to investigate the incident, said the man was standing on a median in the middle of Fulton Industrial Boulevard.

At some point, it was determined that the man had an active warrant for his arrest, though the GBI did not provide further details.

South Fulton Lt. Charles Cook, who also responded to the scene, got out of his car and was struck “at least three times” when the suspect began firing, Meadows said.

Cook and a Fulton officer, identified as Zahir Muid, were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where Cook is in critical condition, the chief said.

“Fortunately, Grady personnel has been able to stabilize him at this point,” the chief said, adding the department is “hopeful for a successful outcome.”

During the shootout, the suspect ran and the Fulton officer chased him, and more gunfire was exchanged, Fulton police Chief Wade Yates said in a separate news conference.

Muid’s injuries were minor, he added. By Friday afternoon, Muid, who has been with Fulton police since December 2024, had been released from the hospital.

When the suspect fell to the ground, the Fulton officer returned to Cook and rendered aid, he said.

“We issue all of our officers a tourniquet, and we believe that that might have saved the South Fulton officer’s life today,” Yates said.

The suspect’s identity was not released, and his body was taken to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

The police activity at one point closed all eastbound lanes of I-20 at Fulton Industrial Boulevard, or Exit 49. The interstate was also briefly shut down through west Atlanta heading toward downtown.

Robert Morales, a manager at the Budgetel Inn & Suites on Fulton Industrial, said in a phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that a man was fighting in the street and “started running, he started shooting the police, so they started shooting back.”

The man ran in a hotel door, through the lobby and out an exit door to the parking lot, Morales said. None of the staff or guests was injured, he added.

A witness at the scene, Jeremy Marr Snow, said he was in his car nearby and saw an officer get shot and heard him call out for help.

“(The suspect) took some shots at other people, so I pulled over quickly and got down as low as I could in the floorboard of my vehicle,” he said in an interview.

The incident comes three days after a South Fulton officer was killed in a head-on crash while on duty. Lt. Helio Garcia, 47, was the first South Fulton officer to die in the line of duty.

“It’s been a rough week,” Meadows said. “Things can change in an instant, and certainly, we’re praying for Lt. Cook in his full recovery.”

Yates said the Fulton police department has not had an officer shot in the line of duty in about a decade.

On Thursday, a Paulding County deputy was shot in a neighborhood near Dallas while responding to a wellness check. Deputy Brice Mattick was treated at a hospital and later released.

(Freelance photojournalist Ben Hendren and staff writers Vanessa McCray, Rosana Hughes, Alexis Stevens, Jozsef Papp and Caroline Silva contributed to this article.

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