Officers are on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, Waycross Police said in a news release. Waycross is in southern Georgia.
No one was injured or killed in the shooting, but a 16-year-old was treated by EMS for minor injuries after an altercation with officers, a release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
It is just one of four officer-involved shooting names since being investigated by the GBI on Friday night, news reports on the GBI website show.
Investigations into all three incidents, which occurred in John’s Creek, Norcross and Screven County, have continued, according to the GBI.
Waycross Police observed a car that committed a traffic violation at 8 a.m. Saturday morning and attempted to obtain license plate information for the car, according to a GBI news release. Inside were five minors, ages 9, 12, 14, 15 and 16.
Three of the children, 9, 12, and 14 years old, left the car as they continued to move toward the officers, the GBI release said.
Officers fired shots “multiple times” at the car with the other two minors, ages 15 and 16, inside, before the boys “got out of the car while it was still in the driveway,” GBI’s release said.
The 16-year-old was arrested for possession of a handgun by a person under 18, reckless driving, a stop sign delay, aggravated assault on a police officer, and driving without a driver’s license, Waycross Police said in a news release.
The 15-year-old was charged with possession of a handgun by a person under 18, obstruction of an officer (crime), and possession as an attempt to remove a firearm from an officer, according to the Waycross Police release.
CNN affiliate WJXT spoke with Dominique Goodman Sr., the father of the children involved, and the three youngest children involved in the incident.
The five children in the car were taken back from Walmart when the officer began following them, Goodman told WJXT. The officer did not turn on his lights to turn them on until they reached their neighborhood, according to the three youngest children.
The older teens were scared and told the three boys to jump out of the car and run home to pick up their father, the 12-year-old WJXT said. When they got out of the car, the girl said the officers started shooting at her, the branch reported.
At least seven shots were fired by the officer, the 9-year-old boy told WJXT. “It passed in front of my face,” the boy told the branch. “I could have shot in my face, but they shot the swing.”
“They shot at a car full of unarmed minors. A car full of unarmed children. Like who in the world can not see that this is a 9-year-old? Who can not see that this is a child? They look like children,” he said. told Goodman WJXT. “They are babies. What was the purpose of the shooting?”
Goldman heard gunfire and saw the children running to the house screaming for help, WJXT reported.
“We go in the back, we open the door, we see my 9-year-old, my 12-year-old and my 14-year-old running from the police behind them, guns coming behind them,” Goodman told the branch. “We’re going down the street and we see our 15-year-old and our 16-year-old on the ground.”
The children came home to pick up Goodman, he told the branch. They were all on their way to a football tournament in Jacksonville that two of the kids were scheduled to play in on Saturday, WJXT reported.
“This is a good neighborhood. All the neighbors are basically family. To hear gunshots in this neighborhood and to see our children being shot at, everyone in the neighborhood knows our kids. They know they are not bad kids,” “Goodman told WJXT. “Our kids almost lost their lives to go to a football game? Man, that’s crazy. That’s crazy. You almost lost their lives after a football game.”
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