Macon – After reviewing initial results of the GBI’s investigation into the Tuesday officer-involved shooting of a woman in Lizella, Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney David Cooke announced Monday that the shooting has been deemed justified.
Four members of the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force went to a house on Fulton Mill Road on Dec. 11, 2018, to serve an arrest warrant on Robert Baxton Williams. When officers arrived at the house they saw a man and a woman on a covered porch. The two then fled inside. A task force member knocked on the door, announcing that he was law enforcement. When there was no response, the task force breached the door and yelled for Williams to surrender. Williams was arrested without incident.
A task force member then yelled for the woman to come out from behind the house. After multiple verbal commands, the woman emerged with her hands in her jacket pockets. She initially refused demands to take her hands out of her pockets, but later complied. Task force member Gerry Nelson, a Jones County deputy, recognized her as Kaley Dee Gay and called her by name. She denied being Gay and gave a false name to officers. Nelson knew there was a warrant out for Gay’s arrest and reached for her arm. Gay quickly put her hands back into her jacket pockets.
Another task force member, Bibb County Deputy Bruce Jordan, also grabbed Gay. She resisted the officers. Jordan placed Gay onto the kitchen floor face-down, but her hands were tucked underneath her. While officers continued to struggle with Gay, she fired one round from a .380-caliber Taurus handgun that was later found concealed underneath her.
After hearing the gunshot, Jordan heard what he recognized as the sound of the slide action from a semi-automatic handgun being manipulated underneath Gay. He fired two shots that struck Gay. Gay was taken to a local hospital by ambulance, but she died from her wounds.
In addition to the .380-caliber handgun found underneath Gay, officers found what appeared to be a .380-caliber shell casing and a spent bullet. Law enforcement also recovered two 9-millimeter shell casings and two 9-millimeter spent bullets. Deputy Jordan’s service weapon was a 9-millimeter handgun.
At the hospital, personnel found a live round of ammunition in the folds of Gay’s clothing. It appears as though the round fell from Gay’s gun as she racked the slide, likely in an effort to clear an apparent jam after she fired her only shot.
“While any loss of life is tragic, I’m grateful the lives of these officers were spared,” Cooke said. ”In this case, it’s clear that these officers feared for their lives and acted in self-defense as is allowed by law.”
The GBI investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
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Contact: Amy Leigh Womack
478-621-6179 (office)
478-319-2529 (cell)