SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) -- A Georgia police chief showed support Friday for two officers being investigated in the shooting of a 71-year-old man outside Savannah.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to handle the case Thursday night. The agency said preliminary information shows the two Chatham County police officers opened fire on Vincent Gadson after he picked up a gun that he had set down on a chair on his porch.
Gadson was being treated at a Savannah hospital Friday and his condition was stable, the GBI said in a news release.
"While this is still under investigation, based on what I know at this point I believe these officers did a tremendous job in a very stressful and difficult set of circumstances," Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley told reporters Friday.
The officers had been called to a neighborhood where two people complained that Gadson had pointed a gun at them from his front porch, the GBI said. The officers spent 15 to 20 minutes trying to get Gadson to put down his weapon before the shooting occurred, the agency said.
The GBI was asked to investigate and the officers were placed on administrative leave in accordance with Chatham County police policy.
Hadley said it was the first shooting involving officers of the Chatham County Police Department since Savannah's city-county police merger ended in 2018.