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Suspect tried to run down officers with car

By Adam Crisp
Savannah Morning News

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Details hard to come by following morning shooting on west side.
A shooting early Saturday in which a 22-year-old Savannah man was fatally wounded by a metro police officer has been ruled as being justified.
Patrolman Kevin McKoon fired two shots and mortally wounded David Willis, who was driving a car and was trying to run McKoon down, police said.
McKoon remains on paid administrative leave while an internal investigation is completed, according to a statement released by the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department late Saturday night.
The shooting occurred around 3:40 a.m. at the intersection of Zubly and Laurel streets, a block east of the Yamacraw Village public housing complex in downtown Savannah.
Willis tried to flee after police officers attempted to stop his gray Pontiac sedan for an improper tag violation on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., according to the police.
Willis initially stopped but then attempted to flee, police said. Two plainclothes officers working an undercover robbery tried assist a uniformed officer in the traffic stop.
The undercover officers were nearby in a rented GMC sport utility vehicle. They got out of their SUV, guns and badges drawn, but Willis continued to move in his vehicle, according to police, eventually crashing into the SUV.
McKoon was a part of that covert detail. He fired two shots at Willis as the vehicle closed in on him.
Willis "died from gunshot wounds he sustained while attempting to run down a police officer with his car," said Sgt. Mike Wilson, police spokesman.
None of the police officers or the other three passengers in the Willis car were injured. The officers called for an ambulance and began administering first aid after the shooting.
Paramedics arrived and rushed Willis to Memorial Health University Medical Center, where he later died, Wilson said.
Police conducted a day-long investigation into the shooting, asking state agencies to assist detectives to determine what happened. A team assembled from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the District Attorney's Office and the Georgia State Patrol began examining the evidence.
An autopsy is scheduled for this week.
Meanwhile, the investigators have ruled the shooting was a lawful use of force, according to Wilson.
The task force of investigators "will provide yet another assurance to the community of a full, complete and impartial investigation," said Police Chief Michael Berkow.
McKoon has served with the department for just over two years. He is assigned as a patrol officer in the Downtown Precinct.
The outcome of the preliminary investigation Saturday was far different than the last fatal shooting involving an SCMPD officer, who shot and killed another man May 30. That case resulted in Officer Antonio F. Taharka being arrested when detectives determined the victim, 41-year-old Anthony Smashum, was unarmed and was shot in the back and in one of his legs as he fled from the officer.
Taharka remains free on a $25,000 bond after being charged with felony murder by aggravated assault.
Attempts to contact the Willis family Saturday were unsuccessful.

Wire Services

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