Thursday, October 13, 2023–12:41 p.m.

-Staff Reports-

The man at the center of a manhunt who was wanted for kidnapping a woman in Rome and then for shooting a Bartow County Police K9 is dead following a shootout with police in DeKalb County, Ga.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation:

Officers found 30-year-old Geoffrey Frank Walker of Bremen at a hotel.

He ran through neighborhoods and into the woods near the sanitation department off Leroy Scott Drive in Decatur.

Once they found Waller, officers gave commands to drop his gun.

Walker began shooting and officers returned fire.

He died at the scene.

A medical examiner will determine the cause and manner of death and the GBI is conducting an investigation.

Previously posted

Authorities are looking for a suspect after a police K9 near the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville Thursday.

WBHF Radio in Cartersville reports:

Witnesses on the scene say a vehicle traveling along Highway 411 was stopped by law enforcement officers using a PIT maneuver.

The driver, 30-year-old Geoffrey Frank Walker, who has multiple outstanding warrants in Floyd County, ran into a wooded area.

Cartersville Police, the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia State Patrol, and the Rome-Floyd County SWAT team conducted a manhunt in the heavily wooded area, to no avail.

A police K9 was shot multiple times, and at last report, was expected to survive.

As of Friday morning, authorities were still searching for Walker.

According to the warrants:

On October 11, Walker abducted a woman against her will by physically dragging her from her residence on Kingston Avenue in Rome to his vehicle in the area of Waddell Street and Gordon Avenue.

Walker is also accused of violating a condition bond that prohibited him from having contact with the victim.

He also allegedly fled on foot from Rome Police as they were trying to arrest him on outstanding warrants charging him with kidnapping, aggravated stalking, and obstruction of officers after he ran from police.

Floyd County Jail records also indicate that Walker is facing charges of simple battery, criminal trespass, and aggravated stalking in connection with an incident on September 14 at the same Kingston Avenue address, as well as battery and aggravated stalking in connection with an incident on Calhoun Avenue on October 2.