ATLANTA -- Noel Hall says he's lucky to be alive after he was shot by an Atlanta Police supervisor Saturday night.
On Saturday, Sgt. Mathieu Cadeau shot Hall, 46, outside the Georgia Dome as people were leaving a motocross event, officials said.
The GBI told 11Alive that Cadeau was conducting traffic and ordered Hall to go one direction down Northside Drive, but reportedly, Hall wanted to go another direction. The GBI, which has taken over the investigation, said Hall then drove toward the officer, at which point Cadeau opened fire, injuring Hall.
Hall and his family now dispute that account, saying they never drove toward the officer and “at no point did we realize this man was a police officer.”
APD meanwhile, stressed again Wednesday that their office has never said Hall drove toward Cadeau.
"We're not at the point where we're going to say that the officer was threatened or the officer was not threatened," Sgt. Warren Pickard said Sunday.
Scroll down to read the full statement from Noel Hall.
According to Hall, his vehicle was already in the process of turning when Cadeau approached by “walking in front” of his van. Hall said when the officer did, they came to a complete stop, then made a turn to the right, around the officer.
It’s still unclear at this point why Cadeau opened fire on Hall, whose sons, wife, grandson and another passenger were all inside the car. Atlanta Police have not given an indication that the officer felt threatened at the time.
Hall called the incident and the days after a “whirlwind,” both physically and emotionally. His family is now seeking to take legal action for what they call an “absolutely unjustified” shooting.
Read the full statement below:
At this point in time we feel the need to give a partial statement concerning the incident that our family was involved in with the officer shooting that occurred on Saturday night.These last 72 hours have been quite a whirlwind for us, both physically and emotionally. It is a lot to process, to deal with, and to try and understand.
We have seen some of the news articles and broadcasts containing some information from other resources, which obviously is not giving a clear understanding of our side of what happened. Considering the nature of the shooting, we are going comment on only a few things, without going into a lot of detail, because at this time we are in the process of finding and obtaining a lawyer.
First thing we want to make very clear is, that at no point did we realize this man was a police officer, he never presented hisself in any such way. Yes, he had a vest on, however, from our point of view there was nothing on it to indicate or state who he was, he never identified himself, we did not see a badge and most certainly did not see his weapon.
We were already in the turn lane and in the process of turning when he approached us by walking in front of our van, we did not drive toward him as been stated. We came to a complete stop and at the point when we did start moving, we made a turn to the right, around and away from the officer.
It is unclear to us as of why he chose to shoot, as we had already moved past him, when he fired at us, but it was absolutely unjustified. We are very fortunate and thankful that I (Noel) did not sustain any life threatening injuries from the gunshot wound, as we are also very fortunate and thankful that none of the other family members were hit.
The officer shot at me through the drivers window, the bullet entering and exiting me twice, then through and out the passenger window, just missing my wife’s head, who was seated in the passenger seat by only inches. Also in the van were 2 of our sons, one sons girlfriend and our 2 year old grandson, so it could have very easily went through the passenger area of the van, hitting any of them.
At never any point would I have done anything to put them in harms way, just as I would never had intentionally made a move to cause harm or possibly take another’s life.
