RICHMOND HILL, Ga. — A shooting at a Richmond Hill home just after midnight Saturday left one man dead and set off a police chase that ended with the suspected gunman dead in a parking lot along Highway 144. State agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation once city police asked for help.
Investigators identified the man killed at the house as Mykyle Augustus Barton, who was 37. The man police chased was Lawrence Zion Pritchard, 33. Both lived in Richmond Hill.
The first call reached Bryan County 911 at about 12:14 a.m. on Oct. 17 and reported gunfire at a house on the 100 block of Golden Grove Lane. City officers who responded found Barton inside with several gunshot wounds, and he died there.
Someone living at the house pointed officers to Pritchard as the shooter. Officers spotted him close by, but he got into an SUV and left. When police tried to pull the vehicle over, he kept going, and officers made several attempts to spin the SUV out with PIT maneuvers that did not work.
The chase ended when Pritchard pulled into a lot on Georgia Highway 144, in the 12000 block, and stopped. Officers found him inside with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and he was pronounced dead at that scene.
Autopsies on both men will be done at the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office. Investigators said the investigation remains active. When agents finish, the file will be sent for review to the district attorney’s office for the Atlantic Judicial Circuit.
People with information can call the GBI office in Statesboro at 912-871-1121.
Section: More Savannah GA crime news
Filed under: Savannah GA Crime News
