Excerpted from the ENN Emergency Service Report-03/09/97-Vol.1, No.068

Three GBI Agents Wounded by Barricaded Gunman

By ENN News Team

LINCOLNTON, GEORGIA (ENN) - A gunman was killed in shootout with police on Saturday during a 24-hour standoff at his rural mobile home, located about 100 miles east of Atlanta. The gunman was identified as Wayne Miller. Miller wounded three police officers in a 15-minute gun battle just after 1000 EST when agents of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) tried to end the barricade situation that began on Friday afternoon.

Police had tried to negotiate with the subject throughout the night. In an effort to storm the mobile home and apprehend the subject, officers threw in tear-gas canisters into the mobile home. Miller responded by opening fire with a shotgun and he threw out a hand grenade that failed to explode.

Three GBI agents were wounded by shotgun pellets and were treated and released from an area hospital.

When Miller threw out the hand grenade, police opened fire on the mobile home. After the shootout, police waited for several hours without further response from the subject. Police then used a remote-controlled robot that was equipped with a camera to see the subject before entering the home and finding Miller dead.

The standoff with Miller began on Friday after Georgia State Police and Lincoln County Sheriff's deputies arrested another man in an undercover drug bust that netted about three pounds of marijuana. A search of that suspect's home uncovered another 35 pounds of the drug and evidence was found that identified Wayne Miller was the source of the narcotics. Police went to Miller's home to question him and he pulled a gun on GBI agents. The officers took cover and the standoff ensued.

(c) Copyright, EmergencyNet NEWS Service, 1997. All Rights Reserved. Redistribution without permission is prohibited by law.

Return to the Police Operations page