ALAMO, Ga. — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says the man accused of shooting and killing Alamo, Georgia police officer Dylan Harrison late Friday night is in custody.
The husband and father of a six-month-old was starting his first shift with the Alamo Police Department on Friday.
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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says the ambush-style attack was an act of retaliation for an arrest Officer Harrison made earlier in the night.
The GBI says that Officer Harrison stopped a man for a traffic violation at the Circle K across from the police department.
When the suspect refused to give Officer Harrison his name and ID, things escalated into the man pushing Harrison. When Harrison tried to put him under arrest, he continued to resist and Harrison fired his Taser. He was taken to the Wheeler County Jail.
Officials say this man is a known associate of Damien Anthony Ferguson, who investigators identified as a suspect.
Ferguson was taken into custody on Sunday when U.S. Marshals and the State of Georgia SWAT Team served a search warrant at his Alamo home.
Ferguson is being charged with the murder of Officer Harrison. He is also being charged with aggravated stalking in connection to a previous, unrelated domestic incident.
He is being held in the Laurens County Jail.
“I have never experienced a grief that I have felt since Officer Dylan Harrison’s life was taken in our small, quiet town. Officer Harrison was a husband, a son and, more importantly, a father of a six-month-old boy,” said Alamo Police Chief Karen Sanders. “His life was taken from him for simply doing his job. Despite the sadness that we have endured, I have found a sense of pride in seeing everyone pull together to right this tragic wrong.”
Alamo is the county seat of Wheeler County in southeast Georgia. The town is north of Hazelhurst and east of Vidalia.
In a post on the Telfair County Sheriff’s Facebook page, Sheriff Sim Davidson honored Officer Dylan Harrison.
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Governor Kemp also acknowledged the sacrifice of Officer Harrison in a tweet Saturday morning.
The investigation is still ongoing.
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