A Warm Springs police officer was finishing up a traffic stop just steps from city hall and the department’s headquarters in the small Georgia community when the GBI said another vehicle pulled up next to his patrol car and fatally shot him.
By Wednesday morning, hours later and more than 200 miles away in South Carolina, a massive search for the officer’s alleged killer came to an end.
Authorities said they located the suspect, Jimmy Steverson, after stopping a car in which he was a passenger. Steverson, 23, was suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and later died, the GBI said.
The officer, identified as Sgt. Chris Fisher, had encountered the suspect just days before when he arrested Steverson, records show. Authorities did not answer questions about if Fisher was targeted or if Steverson recognized the officer.
Credit: Courtesy of the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council
Credit: Courtesy of the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council
The search for Steverson began Tuesday at 11:57 p.m. after Fisher was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Meriwether Country Inn on Spring Street in Warm Springs. The GBI said Fisher was wrapping up an unrelated traffic stop when a black Chevrolet Silverado stopped beside his patrol vehicle.
The driver, later identified as Steverson, “fired multiple shots into Officer Fisher’s patrol vehicle, hitting Officer Fisher,” according to the GBI. The state agency said Steverson then fled the parking lot.
Fisher was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities stated. His body was taken to the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
The GBI, in an earlier statement, described Steverson as “armed and dangerous” and put out a Blue Alert, which is issued to speed the arrest of a suspect who is accused of killing or seriously injuring a law enforcement officer.
Warm Springs is in Meriwether County, just over 70 miles southwest of Atlanta and about 75 miles west of Macon. Signs alerting motorists to be on the lookout for the Silverado were posted along metro Atlanta interstates Wednesday morning.
Steverson was located by officials with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office during a traffic stop shortly before 11:40 a.m., the GBI said. Officials said he died after being taken to a South Carolina hospital for “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.” The GBI initially provided a different spelling for Steverson’s first name.
On Friday, days before the fatal incident, Fisher arrested Steverson and transported him to the Meriwether jail on charges of possession of marijuana, possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime and willful obstruction of law enforcement officers, according to a booking report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Steverson was released from the jail on a $10,000 bond about 12 hours later, and a court date was set for November, documents show.
According to records from the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, Fisher had been with the Warm Springs department since May 18 and became a sergeant in July. He started his first law enforcement position in Georgia in 2010, and he previously worked for sheriff’s offices in Heard, Fayette and Meriwether counties.
Warm Springs police Chief Matthew Mayfield did not respond to the AJC’s requests for comment.
In a post on X, Gov. Brian Kemp said he was “saddened” to learn of Fisher’s death.
“This is a tragic reminder of the dangers law enforcement face on a daily basis in service to their communities, and I ask that all Georgians lift up Fisher’s family and his fellow officers in prayer,” Kemp wrote.
Fisher is at least the fifth Georgia law enforcement officer to be killed this year in the line of duty, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks law enforcement deaths. Gwinnett County police officer Pradeep Tamang was the first Georgia officer to be killed in the line of duty in 2026.
Fisher’s death came on the same day the Atlanta Police Department also lost one of its own. Recruit Moses Russ died after the motorcycle he was operating collided with an SUV on Tuesday morning, police said. The crash was still under investigation as of late that afternoon.
― Staff reporter Asia Simone Burns contributed to this story.
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