Police Kill Man Just Outside Marietta

Cobb County police officers killed a Marietta man Wednesday afternoon after a brief standoff in an apartment just outside the city of Marietta.

Eric Dewayne Moon Jr., 23, died in the apartment at 3500 Windcliff Dr. in the Lincoln Hills complex after officers opened fire “in fear of serious bodily injury or death,” police Sgt. Dana Pierce said in a news release issued early Thursday.

The fatal shooting followed a failed traffic, a single-vehicle crash and a brief search, according to the police narrative.

Two uniformed officers in a marked patrol car from East Cobb’s tried to stop a silver 1999 Chevrolet Lumina just before 4 p.m. on Terrell Mill Road by Lincoln Hills, which is west of Interstate 75, Pierce reported.

The apartment complex is in an unincorporated area of Cobb County bordered to the west, north and east by the city of Marietta.

The driver of the Lumina did not stop and instead drove into Lincoln Hills, police said. Just past the entrance gate, the car hit a tree and a stop sign, then rolled over.

The driver ran deeper into the complex to the 1900 building, Pierce reported.

Officers found the apartment where the driver was hiding in a few minutes, police said, and they began a room-by-room search.

Moon was barricaded inside a bedroom closet, Pierce said in the statement.

Moon refused to surrender, and his actions and threats led the officers to shoot him, Pierce said. He did not say whether Moon had a gun.

The dead man did not live at Lincoln Hills but spent a lot of time there, family members told WSB-TV.

At least one officer was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

The police Internal Affairs Unit and the Crimes Against Persons Unit are investigating the shooting. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call 770-499-3945.