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October 18, 2011

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Ga. officials investigating rail station OIS

It remains unclear what prompted the shooting

By George Mathis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATLANTA, Ga. — A MARTA police officer who shot and killed a man at the Vine City rail station has been identified.

MARTA spokeswoman Cara Hodgson said Monday that Officer Robert Waldo fired the shots that killed Joetavius Stafford, 19, of Atlanta late Saturday night.

The dead man's brother, meanwhile, is saying he was shot three times in the back.

MARTA spokesman Lyle Harris would not comment on what prompted the shooting, and could not provide more details. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is handling the case.

Channel 2 Action News reports the shooting near the Georgia Dome, where high school football games were played Saturday night.

The victim's brother, Rodney Stafford, told Channel 2 Action News his brother was involved in an altercation at the train station when a shot was fired into the air by someone in the crowd. Rodney Stafford said he then saw a MARTA police officer run toward the fight and shoot at his brother, striking him three times in the back.

“They were like, ‘Where the gun at? Where the gun at?’" he told Channel 2. "So after that, I heard a gunshot. Pow. Everybody started running. As he was drawing his gun, I was turning back around. My brother threw his hands up. MARTA police shot him in the back. Pow. And my brother lying on the ground, just looking at me and I was looking at his gunshot wound. As I'm looking at that, MARTA police shot him two more times in the back," said Stafford.

Harris would not comment on those allegations.