A middle-aged man was shot and killed by a police officer after a short standoff Monday at a Pooler home, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
A Pooler police officer shot Lance Clay after Clay came out of the residence in the 100 block of Chinese Fir Court, off Godley Station Boulevard, and pointed a firearm at officers, said Catherine Sapp, special agent in charge of the GBI’s Statesboro office.
“Mr. Clay was having issues, and he brandished a weapon and the police were forced to take measures to stop that confrontation,” Sapp said.
Sapp said investigators had determined what those issues were, but the GBI special agent said she would not immediately release that information.
Pooler police chief Mark Revenew at the scene Monday night said his officers responded about 8 p.m. to a call of an agitated person at the Chinese Fir Court home. Chatham County property records list Clay as the owner of a home there.
Before exiting the home with the gun, the suspect, Clay, fired shots from inside at officers surrounding the residence, Revenew said Monday.
In addition to Pooler police, officers from Bloomingdale, Garden City, Port Wentworth and Georgia State Patrol troopers responded to the scene.
Revenew, who did not say Monday night Clay had been shot, turned the investigation over to the GBI after the suspect was taken from the scene in an ambulance.
Clay died at Memorial University Medical Center, Sapp said.
The GBI is typically called in to investigate incidents similar to the Monday night police-involved shooting in Pooler, she said.
“Basically we are an outside entity to examine the case,” Sapp said. “Our job is not to judge right or wrong, it’s to gather information as an unbiased agency.”
Sapp said information gathered during the investigation would be turned over to the Chatham County District Attorney’s Office, who would decide if further action, such as filing charges, is required.