Correctional officer shot outside jail in Atlanta suburb
Dec 12, 2022, 6:43 PM | Updated: Dec 13, 2022, 2:53 pm
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Police say a correctional officer was shot and killed early Tuesday outside a jail in an Atlanta suburb.
Gwinnett County police officers responded about 6:20 a.m. to a “person shot” call at the county correctional complex in Lawrenceville. They found 59-year-old Scott Riner in the parking lot outside the jail suffering from a gunshot wound, according to a police news release.
No arrests were immediately made. The investigation was ongoing and detectives were exploring all motives, police said.
Gwinnett County police spokesperson Sgt. Jennifer Richter said the Department of Corrections was stunned by his death, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“Right now we are still early on in this investigation,” Richter told the newspaper. “The best we can tell is that he had an encounter with an individual here in the parking lot, and we are working to determine what that encounter was and what exactly led up to the shooting, as well as who that individual was.”
Police were asking anyone who was in the area of the correctional complex between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. Tuesday to contact detectives. They said they were particularly interested in anyone who might have dash cam footage.
Riner had worked at the correctional complex for more than 10 years, police said.
Capt. Audrey Henderson told the Journal-Constitution that Riner was a hard worker who was well-liked by his co-workers on a team that takes inmates out for work detail. Even the inmates liked him because he treated them fairly, she said.
“Being in this negative environment sometimes, working here, it’s easy to come in and be negative and be unhappy, but that’s not who he was,” Henderson said. “And every day he did it on a daily basis. That’s a hard job to do.”
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