AUGUSTA, Ga. — A Central Georgia teen lost her father Tuesday night when a Georgia sheriff’s deputy was killed in a shootout at an Augusta convenience store.
At a news conference Wednesday, Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree teared up as he described the sequence of events leading up to the death of Investigator Cecil Ridley, age 51.
Mount de Sales Principal Mike Franklin confirmed to 13WMAZ that one of their students is Ridley's daughter.
Here's what what we know about the case:
Roundtree said Ridley and other deputies were in the process of a gun round-up when they came across 24-year-old Alvin Hester Jr.
Augusta CBS-affiliate WRDW reports Hester was in the parking lot of a convenience store at 12th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard when deputies tried talking to him.
Hester then went inside the convenience store instead of stopping. The deputies followed him in, and Roundtree says that’s when Hester pulled one of his three guns out and opened fire as Ridley was coming in to provide backup.
Hester shot Ridley, while the other deputies opened fire and shot Hester. Both men were taken to Augusta University Medical Center.
Ridley died around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday.
In Wednesday’s press conference, Roundtree said Ridley was an asset to the sheriff’s office and was “one of our best narcotics officers.”
He also assured people that despite the tragedy, Richmond County deputies will continue gun round-ups as the agency grieves.
Charges against Hester are pending, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
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