Quick-Thinking City Employee Shoots Carjacker in Georgia

A city employee held the suspect at gunpoint until officers arrived.

ByABC News
April 4, 2015, 6:34 PM

— -- Quick thinking by a city employee in Smyrna, Georgia, stopped a carjacking in action, police said.

A woman was cleaning out her car Friday at the Fast Trac Car Wash in Smyrna, about 16 miles north of Atlanta, when a carjacker jumped into her vehicle and started to back out, according to the Smryna Police Department.

The woman jumped on the hood of her own car to try to stop the suspect, police said. A city employee who was cleaning out his car next to the victim also tried to intervene.

The suspect, a juvenile, then started to drive away while the victim was still on the hood. As the carjacker turned onto the parkway, the city employee shot through the driver's side window, hitting the suspect in the shoulder, police said.

The employee held the suspect at gunpoint until officers arrived, according to police.

The suspect was taken to the hospital. No one besides the suspect was injured, Smyrna Police spokesman Christopher Graeff said.

Graeff said the city employee involved is not a police officer, but authorities are not yet revealing his name.

"The city employee was a little shaken up," Graeff said. "The victim actually called our city employee a hero."

The investigation is ongoing, police said, as they search for other suspects seen fleeing the area. The juvenile is facing charges of aggravated assault and theft by taking motor vehicle, according to police.