WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The father of the man shot and killed by a Peach County deputy says he needs answers about why.
This morning, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations identified the man as 20-year-old Caleb Hooten.
His father, Willie Hooten, describes his son as a family man, a father and someone with a good heart. He says the loss of his child has been hard to process.
Hooten got the news while he was home in Alabama that Caleb was in a high-speed chase. He said after seeing a Facebook video of the outcome, he got worried.
"They said there had been a shooting. That's when I started calling people 'Asking was it my son?' Unfortunately, it was," he said.
Hooten wants people to remember his 20-year-old son as a light. He says Caleb was known for rapping.
"Instead of talking it out, he would rap it, and everything he was going through he would put it in his music," his father said.
Apartment residents added that Caleb posted a lot about being a father on Instagram.
"He would just rap and take care of his daughter. That's all I seen," Tee Jamaal said.
Neighbors and Hooten are looking for clarity about what happened.
The GBI says Hooten sped into the Marvin Gardens Apartment Complex in Fort Valley, hopped out of the car, started running toward the woods and pulled a gun on the deputy.
However, several witnesses told me and Wooten they saw something different.
"The man jumped out the car, man the police shot that man for no reason," a resident said.
So far, Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese and the GBI have not said how many times Hooten was shot. They also haven't said whether Hooten fired shots or how many.
It left neighbors cautious, like Crow Robinson.
"You have to watch the way you step," Robinson said.
It's also left Hooten's family waiting for answers.
"We don't uphold any wrong. If Caleb was wrong, Caleb was wrong, but if Caleb was right we want justice," he said.
The GBI is investigating, then they'll turn the case over to the local district attorney, who will decide whether the shooting was justified or whether to press charges.
Authorities have not released the name of the deputy who shot Hooten.
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