BECKLEY, W.Va. — State Police say a man wanted for murder in the state of Georgia wasn’t giving up without a fight.
A trooper noticed the vehicle headed north on I-77 in Raleigh County Tuesday afternoon which fit the description of a car tied to a murder in Rockdale County, Georgia.
“He was aware. He’d heard the BOLO at some point and when he saw that vehicle he immediately thought of that BOLO,” said State Police Lieutenant Mike Baylous.
The Trooper couldn’t catch up to the vehicle and believed it may have exited the Turnpike at Harper Road in Beckley. The trooper positioned himself in the median north of Harper Road to watch. An alert member of a road maintenance crew was aware of the chase from radio traffic and spotted the vehicle on the entrance ramp at Harper Road. More troopers joined the chase which reentered I-77 northbound.
“We had some troopers in the area who attempted to perform a felony traffic stop, but before they could do that the vehicle took off travelling north again,” Baylous explained. “The initial trooper up north of them set out some spike strips and they were successful in disabling the vehicle and causing the driver to pull over near the 47 mile marker.”
The driver, identified as Brandon Johnson, 28, of Snellville, Ga. got out of the vehicle and took aim at troopers with a handgun. He was shot by several troopers who were on the scene and later died at Raleigh General Hospital.
“Troopers are taught to respond to any threat and respond appropriately,” said Baylous. “That’s exactly what they did in this instance.”
Johnson is wanted for the murder of a former co-worker who was shot in the parking lot of a Goodwill Store in Rockdale County, Ga.