BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) - Police in coastal Georgia say a man wanted in a shooting killed himself before police could arrest him.
Acting Glynn County Police Chief Jay Wiggins told The Brunswick News that Rashard Alford, 18, shot and killed himself Tuesday in a vehicle outside a motel.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Stacy Carson said police were moving in to arrest Alford.
"Law enforcement was in the process of executing a warrant and was within eyesight of him when the incident occurred," Carson said. She said other people were in the vehicle when Alford shot himself, but declined to give further details. GBI is investigating.
Alford was wanted on charges including aggravated assault after shooting a woman Monday night in Brunswick. Police had tracked him down at a Red Roof Inn and had been watching him before arresting him.
The woman, who has not been named, was hospitalized in critical condition at a Jacksonville, Florida, hospital, said Brunswick Police Chief Kevin Jones. Witnesses told police the woman was shot in the neck after she stepped into an argument involving Alford and his girlfriend to aid the girlfriend.
Alford's body was taken for autopsy at the GBI Crime Lab in Pooler, near Savannah.
The Glynn County Police Department has been under scrutiny after a series of incidents that climaxed after the department didn't arrest anyone following the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. GBI later charged three men in the death of Arbery, a black man who was shot while running through a neighborhood near Brunswick in February. Lawmakers passed several bills seeking to abolish the department and hand law enforcement authority back to the county sheriff. Gov. Brian Kemp has not yet signed any of the bills.