For the 85th time this year, the GBI is investigating a shooting involving Georgia officers.
GBI agents were called Sunday to investigate the latest incident, which occurred at a Savannah motel. A woman was fatally shot near the lobby, and police engaged the alleged shooter, identified by the GBI as Joshua Boyd, 24, of Garden City, in a nearby motel room.
Savannah police and the Georgia State Patrol were the first to respond to the America’s Best Value Inn motel on Ogeechee Road in Savannah late Saturday night. They found 28-year-old Sandee Warren near the lobby with a gunshot wound.
She died at the scene, according to Savannah police.
Witnesses told police Boyd was armed with a handgun and holed up in a room, the GBI said in a statement.
“Multiple shots were fired by Savannah officers and GSP troopers during which time Joshua Boyd ... was shot and died at the scene,” the GBI said.
No officers were injured in the incident. A handgun was found in the motel room, according to the GBI.
The shooting in Savannah occurred two days after another deadly incident in Henry County that left one officer in critical condition. According to the GBI, a single shot hit both Henry County police officer Michael Smith and 53-year-old Dimaggio McNelly after a struggle inside a dentist’s office. Smith was hit in the face, and McNelly was killed.
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Agents are still investigating who pulled the trigger. The Henry County and Savannah incidents put the number of officer-involved shootings investigated by the GBI just below the 2017 total. Last year, the agency investigated 88 such incidents.
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An autopsy on Boyd was expected to be performed by the GBI Crime Lab in Savannah. While the GBI is conducting an investigation into his death, Savannah police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding Warren’s shooting.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the police department’s violent crimes unit tip line at 912-525-3124.
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