Chickamauga officer shot, suspect caught at state line

The Chickamauga, Ga., police officer who was shot in the leg Thursday afternoon has been released from Erlanger at Hutcheson and is expected to make a full recovery, Chickamauga Police Chief Michael Haney said.

Chickamauga officers had an altercation with three people at the 100 block of Wilder Road after answering a domestic disturbance call around 5 p.m., Haney said.

The police officers interviewed the passengers in the car, a female and two males, after the female asked a bystander to call 911, Haney said.

During the interview, a struggle ensued between one man and one of the officers. The officer attempted to pull his Taser, but the suspect, Michael Anthony Brooks II, 24, pulled the officer's gun and started to fire.

"At this point he starts firing rounds, and the second officer at the scene was hit in the knee area of the leg," Haney said.

After the other officer was shot, Brooks got back in the vehicle and fled east with the officer's gun.

He stopped on Three Notch Road in Catoosa County and stole a car from a woman who was taking her garbage out, Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson said. He left his Jeep running on the side of the road and drove north in her vehicle, Wilson said.

A few minutes later, a Catoosa County deputy spotted Brook's Jeep and several agencies pursued him.

Brooks crashed on Interstate 75 North, just over the Tennessee line, and was taken into custody, Wilson said.

None of the three people involved in the altercation live in the Chattanooga area, Haney said. Brooks is from Lyndale, Calif. The other two passengers, a 26-year-old woman and 55-year-old man, were from Atlanta and Pennsylvania. Police are not yet sure of Brook's motive.

"What they were doing in Chickamauga, Georgia, from Atlanta, Pennsylvania and California is the million dollar question right now," Wilson said.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is taking over the case, and the other two passengers are being held for questioning but have not been charged.

Brooks is being held in the Hamilton County Jail awaiting extradition to Walker County.

Multiple law enforcement agencies were involved in the incident, including the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Chickamauga police, the Walker County Sheriff's Office, the Catoosa County Sheriff's Office and East Ridge police.

"It couldn't have worked out better with the multiple agencies responding," Haney said. "I'm just glad that there were no other injuries and no one else was harmed in the matter."

Both sides of the interstate were blocked for several miles after the crash.

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