Georgia sheriff charged with 'reckless conduct' in shooting of real estate agent

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia sheriff has been charged with reckless conduct in the shooting of a real estate agent as prosecutors look into his statement that he was conducting police training exercises at the time...

TheGrio Staff

May 7, 2015

Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill was charged Wednesday in the shooting, which critically wounded real estate agent Gwenevere McCord, 43, Gwinnett County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Shannon Volkodav said. He was released on a $2,950 bond Wednesday night. The charge is a misdemeanor.

Authorities have said the two were alone in a model home roughly 50 miles northeast of where Hill’s office is located when the shooting happened Sunday.

Watch the initial report on the shooting below:

Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said he has fundamental questions about Hill’s account, which was that he was conducting training exercises inside the home when he accidentally shot McCord. The location of the house is well outside Hill’s jurisdiction.

McCord, who was shot in the abdomen, was physically unable to tell investigators what happened and Hill refused to do so, Porter said Wednesday. McCord and Hill were alone in the house at the time and Hill left the scene without giving an official statement, investigators have said.

“The statement on the 911 tape was that they were doing police training exercises,” Porter said, but the placement of some items at the scene “sort of make you think about that.”

Police have not released the 911 call, and Porter said he couldn’t go into specifics about the evidence found at the scene.

Porter said he was told by Hill’s lawyer that the sheriff would not be speaking with investigators.

“It would certainly assist the investigation if we had his side of the facts, but that’s his choice to make,” Porter said. “I can’t force him to.”

Lawyer Drew Findling, who has represented Hill previously, didn’t return a phone message from The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Hill did give his cellphone to investigators at the scene and also turned over the clothing he was wearing and both guns he had at the time, Porter said.

Hill’s time as sheriff in the county south of Atlanta has been filled with controversy. On his first day a decade ago, he fired more than two dozen deputies. He also used a military tank on drug raids as part of a tough-on-crime message.

He was voted out of office in 2008, but won it back again in 2012 despite facing more than two dozen criminal charges in a corruption case. A jury later acquitted him of all 27 charges, including theft and giving false statements. That cleared the way for Hill to continue as sheriff.

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Associated Press writer Phillip Lucas in Atlanta contributed to this report.