November 17, 2009

AUGUSTA, Ga.---Deputies say a narcotics suspect tried to run them over. The deputies ended up shooting and killing the suspect.

It all happened around 9 o'clock last night as officers went to arrest Michael C. Nestor at his home on Ohio Avenue, off Highland, not far from Daniel Field.

Richmond County Sheriff Ronnie Strength briefed reporters on the shooting this morning.

We now know the names of the three narcotics investigators involved in the shooting. They are Mike Swint, Jason Saal and Phillip Hambrick. All have three to six years' experience with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Strength says all three fired shots at 30-year-old Michael Christopher Nestor last night.

Sheriff Strength says preliminary reports suggest Nestor was hit in the arm and the neck when he was shot while allegedly trying to escape from the three officers in his car.

The sheriff says Nestor has an extensive rap sheet with drugs in the Atlanta area and had been under surveillance for drug activity in Richmond County for about a month.

According to the sheriff, investigators went to Nestor's home last night to arrest him on several drug warrants, including possession of meth, ecstasy, oxycontin, marijuana, and methadone. The sheriff says the investigators parked down the street and walked to Nestor's house. When they approached, he was in his car. Swint and Hambrick were reportedly approaching the driver's side and Saal was approaching the rear of the vehicle.

The sheriff says he believes Nestor saw the deputies approaching and got in the car to run.

The car was reportedly shot several times. Nestor drove about 200 yards before jumping out of the car and collapsing in a neighboring yard. He died later at the hospital.

This is the fifth officer-involved shooting in one year in Richmond County, and the fourth fatal one. The sheriff admits that's unusual, but says all the shootings were justifiable.

"We don't wake up in the morning saying 'Let's go out and see if we can get in a shootout'," Strength said. "These guys are not thinking about that. They're thinking about going home at the end of the day also. But the nature of their job sometimes causes this. We're not working with good citizens every day. We're working with the criminal element, and we have to do what we have to do."

Sheriff Strength says Swint, Hambrick and Saal have been placed on administrative duties while the GBI investigates. This is standard procedure.

There is no dash cam video of the incident because the investigators had parked down the road. The sheriff says the three weren't in road patrol uniforms, but were wearing rain jackets with the word "SHERIFF" in yellow on the front and back. He says they also had their badges and clearly identified themselves.

Nestor's body is undergoing an autopsy right now at the GBI crime lab. We'll bring you the update on that later tonight.

Deputy Saal was a goalie with the Augusta Lynx before joining RCSO.

Deputy Hambrick was suspended in 2006 for 10 days after questionable material was found on his MySpace page. Another deputy, Jason Izquierdo, lost his job over the MySpace incident.

The sheriff also told News 12 today the two deputies involved in last week's deadly shooting of Terry Ramsey--Chadwick Plueger and Sylvester Rosier--have been preliminarily cleared by the GBI. Both deputies returned to road patrol last night.