The woman killed during an officer-involved shooting on a Georgia highway suffered from PTSD, according to a report from a previous run-in with law enforcement just one day before her death.
It was a sudden end to the life of a troubled woman who lived alone in Cedartown, with few friends and, her family said, a lot of demons.
Polk County Police were called to the 100 block of Harris Circle in Cedartown, Georgia on Sunday at 10:26 p.m.
They had received a call from a resident who said they witnessed a heated domestic dispute. When officers got there, they found 55-year-old Kim McCann standing at the end of her driveway.
Officer Wayne Breeden approached McCann to ask what she saw, and he noticed she was sweating and that her hands were shaking.
He asked her if she was okay and she told Breeden that she was suffering from PTSD, according to the incident report.
McCann told Breeden that she had served in the Air Force. When he heard that, the officer tried to engage her in friendly banter by referring to the Air Force as the “chair force,” according to the incident report. McCann “smiled and said yes she loved her chair.”
She then told Breeden that she was not too fond of the Cedartown Police because they had her admitted to the hospital, but that the Polk County Police were okay.
After that, Breeden told McCann he was going to go across the street to where the domestic dispute was reported and that he would come back to speak with her. McCann acknowledge that and told the officer she would wait near her fountain because “it made her relax.”
While the officer was speaking with the people involved in the domestic dispute, McCann walked back to the end of her driveway and started to yell at officers asking, “When are y’all going to come take my f****** report?”
A second officer, Cory Mitchell, who also responded to the domestic dispute asked McCann to not curse and that he would come by to get her information, according to the incident report.
As Mitchell was writing information on a notepad, Breeden saw McCann “had her hands held up shooting the Bird towards the people involved in the domestic dispute.”
Breeden then attempted to take down McCann’s information, but only if she cooperated and would stop cursing at people.
“She stated that she could do what she wanted to because she was on her own f****** property and that we (officers) could do nothing about it,” the incident report says.
McCann then continued to engage officers by entering and exiting her house several times, only to yell at them some more.
The officers then tried speaking with her through the back door of her house when she told them that they were trespassing on her property and that “she had a gun.”
Breeden told McCann that she was going to be arrested for disorderly conduct if she came back outside to curse at them again, to which she replied that she was not coming out.
Sgt. McKinney, a sheriff's deputy, came to help calm down McCann and started talking to her while Officers Breeden and Mitchell stood down out of McCann’s line of sight, according to the incident report.
Breeden then saw McKinney remove his weapon from his holster as he reportedly told McCann “not to do that” as he backed away from the house.
McKinney told the officers that McCann had what appeared to be a weapon in her hand but had not pointed it at him.
The officers and deputy decided to leave the residence to allow McCann to calm down.
When Breeden returned to the station, he was notified by 911 dispatch that they had gotten a call from the VA Crisis Center. McCann had allegedly called and told the center that “she wanted to kill herself and she had weapons and if the police came to her home she would shoot them,” according to the report.
Breeden asked to be connected to the counselor who had talked to McCann, who told him that McCann had been diagnosed with a mental disorder and that she was not sure that she had been taking her medication.
The counselor also told Breeden that McCann said she had several firearms but assured them that they were inside her safe. The counselor felt McCann needed to follow up with a doctor, according to the incident report.
Later that same night, Breeden was dispatched to McCann’s residence again, but this time it was for a shot fired call.
The caller told 911 that they heard a single shot fired from next door but did not see who did it.
Breeden, along with Officers Mitchell, Robinson and Sgt. McKinney, returned to McCann’s residence to check on her.
Robinson managed to get McCann to come to her door to speak with him, and she assured officers that she was okay.
Breeden managed to get McCann’s mother’s phone number from a neighbor and called her to tell her about what was going on with her daughter. McCann’s mother told Breeden that her daughter had spent some time at a mental institute at Grady this past year and that she had been admitted due to her drinking, according to the incident report.
Breeden assured McCann’s mother that he did not notice any alcoholic odor on her daughter. McCann’s mother told Breeden that she would have her son call McCann to get her some help.
At 4:56 p.m. the next day, McCann’s brother called Breeden to find out what happened and told Breeden that he would “try and get her some help.”
But the day after McCann's brother called Polk County Police, she was shot and killed after engaging Cave Spring Police in a pursuit before opening fire on officers.
11Alive's Jon Shirek went back to McCann's neighborhood and spoke to a neighbor and friend, Allie Roberson, who told him she was "shocked, but not surprised" about what happened.
"She did have some struggles," Roberson said.
Roberson explained that she was indeed worried about McCann, but that she was angry that her friend endangered so many lives during the chase and confrontation with police. However, she asked that McCann be judged with mercy.
“Knowing that she was suffering, and that she was still human, and she made a terrible, terrible decision," Roberson said.
RELATED |
