A 55-year-old Commerce man will be charged with murder, aggravated assault and aggravated assault on a police officer after he allegedly shot and killed his 6-year-old grandson and wounded his wife as a domestic incident turned deadly early Sunday afternoon.
Robert L. Clarke Jr., 55, of 228 Troy Street will be charged with murder, aggravated assault and aggravated assault on a police officer. A 20-minute standoff ended when Clark was shot down at his front door by a volley of bullets from local lawmen after he refused repeated orders to disarm and indicated he intended to harm the police who had surrounded his residence.
Police chief John W. Gaissert said Clark shot his wife, Linda Dale Clark, 58, and his grandson, Michael Levigne, 6, who was dead at the scene. His wife was able to crawl out of the residence, and another son, Alex Levigne, 5, was allowed to leave and rushed to safety by lawmen. He is in the custody of the Department of Family and Children Services, Gaissert said.
The Clarks were both transported by helicopter to Grady Memorial Hospital where they were reported to be in stable condition.
Gaissert could not say what precipitated the carnage.
“I am not entirely clear at this point,” he said Sunday night. “I don’t have that level of information.”
Per the department’s policy, two officers, Jason Black and Tory Bell, were placed on paid administrative leave after shooting Clark. Gaissert said two Jackson County deputies, a trooper from the Georgia State Patrol and an officer of the Pendergrass Police Department all fired their weapons at Clark.
“This is clearly a very tragic incident for this community,” Gaissert said. "It was very troubling for everyone who was involved."
Commerce detective Chad Knight said the incident was dispatched at 12:56 by 911 as “gunshots with a barricaded suspect in the house.”
Rita Whitman lives at 261 Troy Street, across the street and just up the hill from the house.
She watched through a bedroom window as the situation unfolded.
“There were a couple of officers in front of the house with their guns drawn,” she said.
More police arrived and took up positions. Mrs. Whitman said she heard officers call repeatedly for the suspect to come out with his hands up, and she could see other officers working into position.
She could not see the front door of the house, but she watched as a male child came out and was whisked to safety by an officer. Five minutes later she saw four people carrying Mrs. Clark out from behind the house. She was taken to an ambulance and removed from the scene suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
“About five minutes later, officers started moving closer. I knew it was escalating,” Mrs. Whitman stated.
Clark apparently came to the door, and officers warned him repeatedly to put his gun down, Mrs. Whitman said.
“Evidently he didn’t,” Mrs. Whitman noted. She said she heard multiple shots, approximately seven, and one of the officers signaled to the others that the suspect was down.
Clark was removed to a waiting ambulance.
Officers from the Commerce, Arcade and Pendergrass police departments responded, as did units of the Jackson County Sheriff’s office and the Georgia State Patrol.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is the lead agency in the investigation, Gaissert said.
because you yourself have been in trouble with the law
before, right? "most are on a power trip"?????? Nobody gets their thrills seeing someone get shot! You shouldn't judge the actions of others until you have all the facts correct.
I must say that I am proud to hear that all of the responding agencies worked together and kept this man from killing another innocent child. I think that you are missing the point. The question you SHOULD be asking is WHAT could possibly make a person, grandfather or not, kill? It makes it no better that he was supposedly going after his wife and the child got in the way...SANE PEOPLE DO NOT KILL!!!
You obviously have no knowledge of the law enforcement field; otherwise you would not have even thought to post what you did. When a call comes out of "shots fired" and "we need any available units" that means ANY AVAILABLE UNITS. Arcade and Pendergrass showed up because that's their job. It seems strange to you because you have no understanding of what law enforcement entails. You are trying to stir up trouble in a situation where it is not deserved. You should be thankful that these officers care enough about the citizens of Jackson County to step out of their jurisdiction and lend a helping hand.
Furthermore, no one has mentioned the 911 dispatchers and the jobs that they, like officers, perform everyday. They are the backbone of officer safety, because of them officers are given a "rundown" of what's going on before they show up at a call. They keep the officers informed of what they will be "walking into" so that they can mentally and physically prepare themselves while en-route.
The dispatcher that took this 911 call had no idea that they would HEAR the gun shot of a mad man killing his grandson, and that is a sound that they will never forget. Now each and every time they answer the phone "911, what is your emergency" a gut-wrenching feeling will come over them because of this tragic situation.
Support and thanks should be given to everyone involved in stopping this mad man. I believe that ALL agencies did a wonderful job and that we all should be thankful for the ones that serve and protect.
My heart goes out to the family. God bless
on this page about what happened - what didn't
happen, and complaining about law enforcement
responding to this situation. This is a terrible thing that has happened. A child is dead for God's sake. Stop bickering and complaining about how there might not have been
any law enforcement coverage in your area for a few hours. Im sure during 9-11, all law enforcement for a 100 mile radius were assisting in New York city, and people were grateful to have them there. This is what we pay law enforcement officers to do. This is what they are trained to do. Let them do their
job and stop being selfish.