1 In Backseat of Police Car, Things Escalated Quickly
According to local station KOKH, Rachel Zion Clay was being detained for erratic behavior. Deputies did not intend to arrest her. Clay was put in handcuffs and placed in the back of a patrol car. Then things went off the rails, and the gunfire followed.
2 Suspect Got Free of Handcuffs, Police Say
Grady County Undersheriff Gary Boggess told KOKH what happened next.
“When we detain somebody they actually go in handcuffs [and] they place you in the back seat of the patrol car,” he said. “While in the back seat of a patrol car, she was able to get her wrist free from the handcuffs and the handcuffs were put on properly. She was able to reach up on our consoles.”
3 Suspect Breached Gun Lock
Continued Boggess: “There’s several switches. One is a gun switch to unlock the gun lock and she found it, unlocked the gun lock and was able to retrieve an AR-15 rifle. Then she was able to figure out how to put a round in it, put it on fire and she fired approximately ten rounds at our deputies and a civilian.”
The officer and civilians were injured in the fusillade. Both sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to the hospital but later released.
4 Changes Planned to Prevent Repeat “Freak Deal”
The sheriff’s office said that it would make some changes to protect officers, starting with not keeping a gun in the car under the label “gun.”
“One, I will say, is our console where it actually said ‘gun,’ and she was able to see that,” Boggess told KOKH. “That’s gonna be replaced. We’re gonna put a switch someplace else in the vehicle to lock our gun. It’s a freak deal. It’s one of these probably, I’m not gonna say one-in-a-million, but you know, it’s one of those deals that, you know, once it happens, then you go back and try to make sure it never happens again. That’s what we’re looking at.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb
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5 What Happened to the Suspect?
According to news reports, after the shooting, Clay barricaded herself in the car, surrendering to authorities almost three-and-a-half hours later. Boggess says Clay tested positive for methamphetamine. Facing three charges of shooting with the intent to kill, she is being held on a $1 million bond.