At 6:05 pm, August 23rd, 2018, the police department was called to the Love’s gas station in Emerson due to a man threatening to harm himself. Two Emerson police officers and one Bartow County sheriff deputy arrived on the scene. This is when Jose Rafael Caballero, 51, pointed his handgun at the officers and disobeyed orders to drop the gun. In response, the officers shot at him.  

After hearing gunshots, the unsuspecting patrons inside the Love’s Travel Stop panicked and rushed for safety. One witness told a Channel 2 Action News Reporter about the madness, “Everybody ran through Love’s that was inside McDonald’s and the employees didn’t know what to do. They were freaking out. It’s kind of sad it happened in a small town like Emerson, which is known to be a quiet little town.” Thankfully, no officers or witnesses were injured. 

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation spoke on the shooting, simply stating that “Officers gave verbal commands for Caballero to drop his weapon, which he did not. When he did not comply, officers fired multiple times, striking him.” Caballero was taken to Kennestone Wellstar Hospital in critical but stable condition.  

His brother-in-law, Jeff Stubbs, spoke about his family member after the situation. He mentioned that he has frequent issues with alcoholism and made threats to his family not even an hour before the shooting. “He wanted to hurt his wife,” he stated. Along with this, he mentioned that the officers did nothing wrong, “I think they tried to keep from shooting him, but once he shot, there ain’t no stopping them.” Despite this, all officers involved have been put on paid administrative leave until the investigation is completed. 

Caballero has had prior issues with the police as well. In January, he was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for obstruction of an officer.  

Since the beginning of 2018, this has been the 60th officer-involved shooting in Georgia with an investigation. Georgia officer-involved shootings have been on the rise. In 2016, there were 43 cases. This number doubled in 2017 to 88 cases. There is no specific reason for the increase, but the GBI is hoping to bring the numbers down soon. 

As the investigation continues, more information will be released.