Georgia officials acknowledged Wednesday that the house where police officers shot a man Tuesday was the wrong address.
The man has since died from the shooting.
The officers were responding to a 911 call in Stockbridge, Ga. at 11:54 p.m., when they arrived at the home of 63-year-old William Powell, an Air Force veteran. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Powell met the officers armed with a handgun. The Bureau said that one officer shot Powell in the neck after he “did not comply” with verbal commands to drop the gun.
According to Fox 5 News Atlanta, Geraldine Huey, Powell’s mother-in-law, claimed that his wife “heard a noise” that night.
“The dogs were in the house. The dogs were up and heard that David got up to see what the dogs was barking at and I guess they was making such a racket, so he reached back to get his pistol,” Powell’s mother said. “According to her, she never heard anybody identify themselves or say they were a police officer. Only thing she heard was a shot and him hollering get back in the house and she’s calling 911.”
The Bureau says it is still investigating the shooting. “Preliminary review of the 911 call indicates that the officers were at the wrong location,” it said in a statement.
The altercation that caused the the initial 911 call took place at a location near Powell’s house. Apparently the operator never received the specific location, causing the police officers to center in on the wrong house.
Scott Dutton, spokesman for the Bureau, said, “Something got lost in communication.”
A neighbor, Darrell Cooper, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “I think the police should identify themselves more if they show up at someone’s house in the middle of the night, instead of just shining lights in their windows.”
He said he has known Powell for at least 30 years. “He’s a fine man.”
Powell was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon around 4 p.m. at Atlanta Medical Center.
The policeman who is responsible for shooting Powell is on paid administrative leave.