Officer-involved shooting investigation underway in Columbus, 1 injured

EDITOR’S NOTE: This report has been updated to include information provided by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Wednesday evening.

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - An officer-involved shooting is under investigation following a traffic stop along Manchester Expressway in Columbus on Wednesday.

A statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation indicates 26-year-old Jermaine Hernandez of Phenix City was shot by responding officers. He was taken to the hospital for his injury, but the extent of his injury is not clear.

Investigators allege Hernandez was traveling around 100 miles per hour through a construction zone on Manchester Expressway when he was pulled over by Columbus police officers. Officers reportedly fired multiple shots at Hernandez’s vehicle after the car backfired. The GBI statement indicates the officers thought the backfire of the car was a gunshot.

Images of the vehicle confirm multiple rounds were fired at the vehicle. Investigators report one of those bullets hit Hernandez.

“I’ve never seen a car shot up like this,” says one by-stander. We talked to people who were detoured around the incident as police blocked off Manchester Expressway just pass the Miller Road exit. While they didn’t want to be identified, many of them saying it looked like a scene out of a movie. “This morning as I was getting ready I heard some gun shots ringing out.”

“I’m just floored away that it’s this close to home, especially for the local interstate, it this something for the bigger inner cities,” says by-stander. “What concerns me is what’s been going on already in Columbus.

It’s repetitive, it seems more like a trend, that these shoot outs. That’s what concerns me its’ getting more out in the open,” says another by-stander. One woman telling us her concern was about shots being fired just after 8:00AM Wednesday , on a busy highway while parents may have children on the roadway.

“It’s too close, it’s too close, what if there were cars beside them, it’s too many bullets, it shouldn’t be like this,” says one Columbus resident.

“It just makes me nervous now, and I don’t know what happened, but seeing that many bullet holes in a car, it’s just sad, it’s heartbreaking that it’s coming to this now,” says one Columbus resident.

The GBI is leading the investigation.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: