A 20-year-old Stone Mountain man is dead after running from a DeKalb County police officer during a foot chase early Sunday, dying from what authorities describe as an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound moments after the officer deployed a Taser. The officer had been responding to a reported armed carjacking when the pursuit began, and state agents are now set to review how the encounter unfolded.
According to FOX 5 Atlanta, DeKalb County police received a call around 4:51 a.m. Sunday reporting an armed carjacking in Stone Mountain. An officer spotted a car matching the description from that call, and Vermontay Burch climbed out and ran when the officer approached the vehicle.
Chase Ends at Apartment Complex
The officer pursued Burch on foot into a nearby apartment complex close to the 400 building on Eagle Springs Way, per the outlet's reporting. The officer fired a Taser that struck Burch, and immediately after the deployment, the officer heard a gunshot and found Burch on the ground with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Emergency responders gave Burch medical aid at the scene, but he died from his injury, the station's report states. His body was taken to the DeKalb County Medical Examiner's Office, where an autopsy will take place.
Key Details Still Unconfirmed
Authorities have not specified whether Burch fired the shot before or after the Taser's electrical charge took effect, according to the same account. Investigators have also not said whether anyone else was inside the vehicle during the initial carjacking report.
State agents will complete an independent review of the use-of-force incident before handing the full file over to the DeKalb Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, the outlet reported. That independent review process mirrors broader protocols now in place across the county's police department.
DeKalb Police's Newer Intervention Policy
DeKalb County Police Chief Mirtha Ramos said the department recently added a “duty to intervene” policy for use-of-force situations, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The policy requires officers to step in when a colleague is “using force that is clearly beyond that which is objectively reasonable under the circumstances,” and it also requires them to report the incident to a supervisor, the paper reported.
Burch's death adds to a string of officer-involved shooting cases the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has handled across the state in recent weeks, including a case in Atlanta in which the agency shared new details about a driver killed by officers attempting to serve an arrest warrant, as reported by CBS Atlanta. In a separate case covered by WSB-TV, the family of an 18-year-old killed in an officer-involved shooting has pushed to see body-camera footage of that incident.
No further details about the reported carjacking, including any suspect, victim, or stolen vehicle information beyond the initial call, have been released. The case remains under review as state agents work toward completing their file for prosecutors.
