{"id":248368,"date":"2026-03-19T20:24:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=248368"},"modified":"2026-03-19T20:25:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:25:03","slug":"bartow-deputies-kill-canton-man-who-pointed-gun-at-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=248368","title":{"rendered":"Bartow deputies kill Canton man who pointed gun at officers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>State investigators are looking into an officer-involved shooting in Bartow County that left a Canton man dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says it was called in by the Bartow County Sheriff&#8217;s Office to independently investigate the shooting, which happened the afternoon of March 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the GBI, Bartow County Sheriff&#8217;s Office deputies and Bartow Cartersville Drug Task Force agents were attempting to serve an arrest warrant on 45-year-old Justin Eric Hardin as part of a drug investigation. Deputies initiated a vehicle stop in the parking lot of the Days Inn motel off Highway 20 in Cartersville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hardin did not comply. He drove away from the initial stop, and deputies pursued him a short distance before performing a PIT maneuver on his SUV beneath the overpass at the intersection of Interstate 75 and Highway 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the vehicle was stopped, deputies ordered the occupants to get out. A passenger, 44-year-old Angela Green of Acworth, exited the vehicle and was taken into custody. Hardin refused to comply with commands to exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deputies deployed OC spray into the vehicle in an attempt to force Hardin out. When that did not work, deputies approached the SUV and broke the driver&#8217;s side window. That is when, according to the GBI, Hardin pointed a firearm at deputies and fired. Deputies returned fire, striking Hardin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hardin was pronounced dead at the scene. No deputies were injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigators say a large amount of suspected methamphetamine was found inside the vehicle. Green was arrested in connection with the drug investigation and transported to the Bartow County Detention Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An autopsy on Hardin is scheduled to be performed at the GBI&#8217;s Medical Examiner&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The GBI says once its independent investigation is complete, the case file will be turned over to the Bartow County District Attorney&#8217;s Office for review.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State investigators are looking into an officer-involved shooting in Bartow County that left a Canton man dead. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says it was called in by the Bartow County Sheriff&#8217;s Office to independently investigate the shooting, which happened the afternoon of March 17. According to the GBI, Bartow County Sheriff&#8217;s Office deputies and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":948,"featured_media":248409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"behind","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[22010,22011],"class_list":["post-248368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-bartow-county-sheriffs-office","tag-justin-eric-hardin","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=248368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=248368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=248368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=248368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}