Montgomery County man dies in officer-involved shooting

AILEY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into an officer involved shooting that happened in Montgomery County Sunday night just before midnight. One man was shot and later died, no officers were injured.

Early investigation shows that the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office was called to the scene around 6 p.m., where they were told 45 year-old Donald Bonner Jr. was in his yard firing random shots. Deputies attempted to negotiate with Bonner, who made threats to kill law enforcement. Negotiations ended when Bonner went back into his house and didn’t continue any further conversations.

The Montgomery Sheriff’s Office as well as the Georgia State Patrol SWAT team created a perimeter and worked to try to safely serve arrest warrants on Bonner. GSP Aviation spotted a person behind the house with a gun– before negotiations began between Bonner and GSP SWAT, Bonner was shot once. He received medical aid on scene but later died at Memorial Health Meadows Hospital.

Bonner was wanted on outstanding warrants for 2 counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer from an incident in March earlier this year when Bonner fired shots in the presence of Montgomery Sheriff’s Office Deputies. At the time, law enforcement decided to wait to arrest Bonner when he was away from his house. Those arrest warrants weren’t served at that time.

This is the 73rd officer involved shooting the GBI has been requested to investigate in 2023.