Officer kills driver after woman thrown from car during fit of road rage, GA cops say
An officer shot and killed a driver after a woman was thrown from a car in a fit of road rage, Georgia officials said.
The woman was in a dispute with the driver when the incident took a turn on Tuesday, Oct. 25, according to preliminary information from Atlanta police.
Officials said the woman jumped onto a car and was thrown from it. An officer was patrolling the area and saw the road-rage incident before intervening, the Atlanta Police Department wrote in a news release.
“The plain-clothes officer tried to have the driver stop and then while he stopped there was some type of verbal altercation that escalated where the officer discharged their weapon,” Deputy Chief Charles Hampton said in video from a news conference that was posted to Facebook.
The driver — identified as 35-year-old James Wilborn — was taken to a hospital and died.
The woman also was taken to a hospital and was in “stable condition” as of early Oct. 26, officials wrote.
No officers were injured, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is looking into the case.
The woman and man likely knew each other before the road-rage incident, which involved a Tesla and a Mercedes-Benz, officials said. The incident was reported at about 8 p.m. near West Peachtree and 16th streets in Midtown Atlanta.
“Right now, we have not found a weapon, but we also have not processed the vehicle,” Hampton said, according to WAGA. “That will be left up to the GBI.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2022 at 9:06 AM with the headline "Officer kills driver after woman thrown from car during fit of road rage, GA cops say."
