Bibb deputy ‘justified’ in shooting man during foot chase in downtown Macon, DA says
A Bibb County sheriff’s deputy was “justified” when he shot and wounded an armed man during a foot chase in downtown Macon earlier this month, Bibb County’s district attorney said Monday.
The wounded man, Benjamin Curtis Bivins, 29, has since been released from a hospital and is being held without bond at the county jail.
The charges against Bivins include aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and two gun-possession charges, including possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
District Attorney David Cooke said in a conference call with reporters that the deputy, Jeremiah Moneypenny, was “justified in his actions” when he shot Bivins in the early hours of March 1 near Cherry Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
As is routine in such investigations, the deputy had been on paid administrative leave pending results of the probe.
“In a case where the facts are clear,” Cooke said, “there is no need to delay getting the deputy back to work.”
According to Cooke, the initial findings of an investigation into the shooting showed that Bivins had been in a fight with another man near the Hummingbird bar on Cherry Street about 1:30 a.m.
Cooke said the man ran and that Bivins chased the man down Cherry to MLK, where Bivins fired two shots near the intersection there.
The deputy, who had been called to check on something at a bar nearby, saw the shooting and ordered Bivins to stop and drop his gun, Cooke said, but Bivins ran.
The deputy chased Bivins and during the chase Bivins, according to Cooke, “turned around, looking back toward deputy Moneypenny while still holding the gun. Deputy Moneypenny reasonably believed that Mr. Bivins was about to shoot him and he fired several shots toward Mr. Bivins.”
Cooke said the pair “exchanged gunfire” and the chase continued up MLK to Mulberry Street Lane where Bivins was caught with a semiautomatic pistol.
“An eyewitness who had been talking to deputy Moneypenny ... saw Mr. Bivins fire shots near the intersection of Cherry Street and MLK Boulevard,” Cooke said. “He also saw Mr. Bivins holding the gun when Mr. Bivins turned toward deputy Moneypenny.”