ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Police Department has released the identity of the officer who shot and injured a driver over the weekend.
Sgt. Mathieu Cadeau shot 46-year-old Noel Hall outside the Georgia Dome Saturday as people were leaving a motocross event, officials said. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation told 11Alive the Cadeau was conducting traffic and ordered Hall to go one direction down Northside Drive, but reportedly, Hall wanted to go another direction.
Hall then turned onto Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd. and drove toward Cadeau. That's when he opened fire, hitting and injuring Hall. One of the five passengers in the van called 911 after the shots were fired. The GBI responded to the scene and is leading the investigation, as is standard with incidents involving officers.
It's still unclear at this time, why Cadeau opened fire on the driver. According to officials, he was serving as a hired security guard outside event when the shooting happened. Police said Cadeau is a member of APD's field operations division.
According to attorney Lance Lurusso, even though a peace officer may get part-time security work, they still have the full rights as an officer. In this case, Lorusso said it's the perceived threat that counts.
"What's going to matter, is from the perspective of the officer, did the officer reasonably believe the person presented a threat," he asked.
"There were nine officers killed in vehicular assaults," said attorney Lance Lorusso. "The particular danger of a vehicle being used as a weapon, not a great deal of speed is required. Most of the time, if a car hits a pedestrian at 20, 25 miles per hour, it will be a fatal wreck."
Atlanta Police, however, had not indicated whether or not that officer felt threatened.
"We're not at the point where we're going to say that the officer was threatened or the officer was not threatened," APD spokesman Warren Pickard said.
11Alive reached out for an incident report from the shooting, which APD released on Tuesday. An incident report from GBI is still forthcoming.
