COWETA COUNTY, Ga. — A man who was wanted for murder and who is accused of shooting a Georgia State Patrol K-9 in Coweta County has been arrested and taken into custody peacefully, Grantville mayor Richard Proctor confirmed.
Authorities went on a manhunt for 51-year-old Ira Troy Williams of Rockdale County, who was identified as the man who led authorities on a high-speed chase into Coweta County on Wednesday.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Williams was wanted for murder, for Aggravated Assault against a police officer for shooting at Troopers during the car chase.
“We were on an all day manhunt,” Mayor Proctor said. “One of the Georgia State patrolmen was downtown and says he saw a pickup truck sitting there at one of the buildings. Sure enough, he took a look inside and there he was inside the front with his gun. He was taken into custody peacefully.”
According to a post on the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page, a reward of $5,000 was offered by the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Williams had been on the run since Wednesday.
The GBI said 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, a GSP Trooper initiated a traffic stop on a Chevrolet Cruze traveling southbound on Interstate 85. The driver, Williams, provided his driver’s license to the officer then drove away from the scene, traveling southbound on I-85 which led to a car chase by Georgia State Patrol.
The GBI says that during the chase, Williams shot his gun several times from his car at troopers and Coweta County Deputies who joined the chase. The Troopers returned gunfire.
After the car was disabled, the GBI says Williams got out of his car and shot at the troopers several times again while he ran away. It is unknown whether Williams was injured during the incident.
The K-9 Officer was treated and released from a veterinary hospital, the GBI said.
Mayor Proctor said that Williams never left Grantville.
“We’re 5.2 square miles, and there are a lot of woods in those 5.2 square miles,” he said. “He was picked up on a security camera in what we call a neighborhood grocery downtown on LaGrange and Main Streets around 10:30 p.m. He bought a shirt, a hat, a scarf and Gatorade. He walked out and was gone. That’s what happened last night.”