Officer back on the job

The day that Fort Oglethorpe Police officer Mitchell Moore was shot in the back, he called Chief David Eubanks and asked if he could return to duty the next day.

Officer Moore already was scheduled to take off Friday through Sunday, and the shooting occurred on a Wednesday, so Chief Eubanks suggested his veteran officer take off Thursday, too, before returning to work Monday.

"He's here and he's doing just fine," Chief Eubanks said Tuesday. "He's still sore. His back looks bad. It makes you wonder how bad it would have been if he wasn't wearing his bulletproof vest."

Chief Eubanks said he would have to speak with Officer Moore and Fort Oglethorpe's city attorney before making the officer available for comment.

On June 24, Officer Moore's body armor deflected a bullet that was fired in the parking lot of Chick-fil-A in Fort Oglethorpe.

He was providing back-up for Catoosa Deputy Sheriff Terry Miller, who was trying to serve an arrest warrant on John Curtis Coates on charges of aggravated stalking, harassing telephone calls and violating a temporary protective order.

Mr. Coates, 34, struggled with the officers and retrieved a handgun from his vehicle's glove box, police said. He fired a single shot that struck Officer Moore, then Deputy Miller fatally shot Mr. Coates, police said.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident and will turn over its results to the Catoosa County District Attorney's Office, said GBI Agent Jerry Scott.

Mr. Coates' cause of death was listed as gunshot wounds and the manner of death a homicide, he said.

Homicide means that one person died at the hands of another. The charge of murder requires the intent to cause death. Courts can rule homicide to be justified, depending on the circumstances.

Catoosa County Coroner Vanita Hullander did not respond to requests for comment Monday or Tuesday.

The Fort Oglethorpe Police Department plans to use photos and information from the incident to compile a training lesson for officers, the chief said.

"Everybody's still talking about it," Chief Eubanks said. "Every time I walk in the squad room, someone's diagnosing or hypothesizing. You can learn from these things and that's what we're going to do."