© Channel 2 Action NewsWilliam Powell
According to the GBI, a 911 dispatcher received a call reporting gunshots and a woman screaming for help at 11:54 p.m. on Tuesday. Unable to obtain an exact address, the 911 operator dispatched three Henry County cops who arrived at the wrong house around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Hearing his dogs barking around 1:30 a.m., William Powell, 63, grabbed his gun and went outside to check their safety. According to his mother-in-law, Geraldine Huey, 85, Powell had gone outside to investigate a possible intruder.
"He went to see what the dogs were carrying on about," recalled Huey, who lives next door. "He (picked) up his gun and when he got to the gate, they shot him."
Although officers told GBI investigators that Powell refused to drop his gun, neighbors assert that the cops failed to identify themselves before suddenly shooting Powell in the neck. Shot in his driveway, Powell was taken to Atlanta Medical Center and remains in critical condition as of Thursday morning.
After eventually locating the correct house, Henry County police discovered that no shots had been fired and no one inside the residence confirmed accusations of a woman screaming.
"There was an argument there, however, they indicated that there was no screaming for help or shots fired," GBI spokesman Scott Dutton told WGCL.
According to the GBI, Henry County PD arrived at the wrong house and shot a man who had nothing to do with the initial 911 call. An Air Force veteran and father of three, Powell had no reason to interact with police according to GBI investigators.
With no officers injured in the shooting, the Henry County police refuse to identify the cops involved in the attempted murder of an innocent man on his own property. After placing the officer who shot Powell on paid administrative leave, the Henry County police refuse to answer any questions regarding the unnecessary shooting.
"He worked all his life. Went to school," Huey described her wounded son-in-law. "Just somebody you'd really like to know. He's right here for me any time."
According to GBI spokesman Dutton, much remains unclear about the shooting.
"The officers were at the wrong location," Dutton admitted. "Something got lost in communication."
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For every young eager policeman who takes his job seriously but still values human life, there are 9 idiots with personality disorders who are nothing more than "thugs for hire". I had a situation like this 5 years ago wherein cops jumped the locked front gate and were about to break down my front door and take me down when the one young officer still at the gate radioed the fat white goons breaking into my house that they were on the wrong property. What gave this brilliant lad a clue that they were at the wrong property - my address number plaque located on the right hand gate pier which is unmistakeable (my street numbers are 10 inches high and they even light up at night, though this was daytime) unless you are blind did not match the address they were supposed to raid. I guess the other clue should have been that my name appears on the mailbox where the main road meets the beginning of my driveway with another large address plaque which has the full address just not the numbers just at this street entry to the drive which leads to my gate. Multiple opportunities to use those valuable reading skills and because these idiots were obviously functionally illiterate, I could have been killed while they were "just doing their job".