No Criminal Action Taken Against Forsyth Deputy Involved in Fatal Shooting

Forsyth District Attorney Penny Penn will not be pursuing a case against a county deputy who shot and killed a 52-year-old man in mid-March.

The Forsyth County News reports that Penn has indicated to both the sheriff’s office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that she will not take action against Deputy William O’Haire, who shot and killed Roger Drake at a northwest Forsyth home on March 17.

Forsyth sheriff’s spokesman Doug Rainwater said at the time that deputies responded to a 911 call at a home in the 7900 block of Nicholson Road just after midnight on the date in question. A man at the residence, later identified as Drake, then threatened deputies with a firearm and was shot. He died at the scene.

“If it appeared from the results of the investigation that there was a basis for criminal charges, I would have pursued it like any other criminal case,” Penn told the news outlet. “But there didn’t appear to be that basis.

Read more from the newspaper’s report here.