North Carolina man fatally shot after firing at trooper, deputy

A man was fatally shot after he fired at law enforcement officers while fleeing the scene of a crash in North Carolina, the State Highway Patrol said Thursday.

A trooper who responded to a vehicle in a ditch in Albemarle around 1:45 a.m. saw the suspected driver with a firearm in his waistband, the highway patrol said in a news release. The trooper called for assistance and when a Stanly County sheriff’s deputy arrived, they tried to take the man into custody.

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The man ran from the scene and fired multiple gunshots at them, officials said. They returned fire and the man was struck. The man, identified as Ghassan Radwan Baba, 22, of Albemarle, died at the scene, officials said. The trooper and deputy were not injured.

Trooper Micheal McCormick, the trooper involved in the shooting, was placed on administrative duty pending an internal investigation, officials said. Details about the deputy involved were not available.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation was asked to conduct an independent investigation.