Man in critical condition after shootout with Houston County deputies, GBI reports
A man was shot and critically wounded early Sunday after opening fire on Houston County sheriff’s deputies in a shootout at a house on the east side of Byron, officials said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which was brought in to oversee the investigation, said in a statement that a Houston sheriff’s deputy was shot in the hand and was treated and released for his wound.
The man who allegedly began shooting at the deputies, identified by GBI as Michael Leatherwood, 47, reportedly did so after four Houston sheriff’s deputies showed up at his house about 7 a.m. Sunday.
The deputies had been dispatched to a “domestic disturbance” at 207 Danube Way, just south of Dunbar Road and east of Interstate 75, the GBI statement said.
“One deputy walked up to the residence and announced that he was law enforcement. A subject inside the residence asked the deputy if he was from Byron Police Department,” the statement noted.
“The deputy advised that he was a Houston County deputy. While the deputy was standing on the front porch, one of the other deputies in the front yard area heard a sound that he recognized as a rifle being loaded. He and the other deputies pulled back from the residence.”
Deputies then saw the man behind a backyard fence and later spotted him “exiting the front door,” the statement said, adding that “the subject opened fire at the deputies with a rifle. The deputies took cover and three deputies returned fire, striking the subject.”
The GBI’s description of the shootout said a fourth deputy there did not shoot.
One of the deputies, who were not identified in the statement, was said to have been “struck in his hand” by a bullet.
Leatherwood was said to be in critical-but-stable condition at a Macon hospital.
Charges against Leatherwood are still pending, according to GBI.