COLUMBUS, Ga. – Police are investigating claims by the family of one of two suspected credit union robbers shot dead by a rookie police officer Tuesday that one of the victims had nothing to do with the holdup and was instead an innocent bystander in the process of being carjacked by the robber for his getaway.
Tony Carr, 35, who died at the local hospital after being shot, was a civilian fire inspector at Fort Benning who rented the house and routinely took his government truck home at lunch to let his dog out, according to his family members.
Police said suspected bank robber Alrahiem Tolbert, 30, got into the government truck while fleeing police, and tried to back over an officer ordering him to stop. Tolbert, whom the officer had chased from MEA FCU, was dead at the scene. Police said he robbed the credit union at about 11:30 a.m.
Carr and Tolbert were killed when the officer fired two shots into the vehicle as it appeared the driver was trying to run him down.
But the two shooting victims had no relationship, according to Carr’s brother, who said he was on the phone with his brother when he overheard the robber enter his truck around 11:49 a.m.
Investigators were unsure how Carr came to be in the truck’s passenger seat, but he fell out as Tolbert backed onto the street, with the officer firing multiple shots at the speeding vehicle. Spinning its tires, the truck fishtailed before crashing head-on into a utility pole, police said.
Officer Lockhart was running a routine check on the credit union when he saw a masked Tolbert fleeing and pursued him, first in the patrol car and then on foot.
