ELLENWOOD, Ga. (AP) — A former sheriff's deputy whose lawyer called him the "main suspect" in the murder of the sheriff-elect was involved in a shootout with men he said were trying to silence him.
Patrick Cuffy, 35, was in police custody but had not been charged Sunday night.
Neighbors said they saw Cuffy and several men exchanging gunfire outside his home early Sunday. The men then pulled a wounded man into a red truck parked outside the house.
"I was talking with my friend Damia Hewitt outside my house when three different vehicles fired at us," Cuffy told WAGA-TV. "Hewitt was shot in both legs, but I believe they were trying to get me."
Hours after the shootout, police found a dead man in an abandoned, bullet-riddled sport-utility vehicle. On a nearby interstate, police also stopped a red truck that had bullet holes and blood stains and detained the driver. Police have not identified the body or the truck driver in custody.
Cuffy's attorney, E. Duane Jones, said his client would remain in custody overnight. He described Cuffy as the "main suspect" in the shooting death of DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown and indicated his client was the intended target of Sunday's shooting spree.
Authorities searched Cuffy's home in January, a month after the shooting death of Brown, a reformer who promised to clean up a police department tainted by corruption.
Cuffy was employed by a private security company run by the former sheriff, Sidney Dorsey, who was defeated by a 2-1 margin after a bitter runoff campaign with Brown in August.
Brown was killed on Dec. 15, two days before he was to be sworn in. Thirty-eight department employees had been told they would be fired when he took office Jan. 1.
Cuffy has said he believes investigators are targeting him as a suspect because of his affiliation with Dorsey.
Dorsey was under investigation for allegedly using on-duty deputies to work for his private security company and for letting jail inmates work in a home repair program run by his wife.
Dorsey has repeatedly said he had nothing to do with Brown's slaying.