201810.21
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Slain Georgia officer from Southern California remembered by Orange police, family and coworkers

by in News

Antwan Toney, a police officer working in the Atlanta area, was on patrol Saturday afternoon when he got a call from his older sister.

The 30-year-old moved to Georgia in 2015 to join the Gwinnett County Police Department, his first job in law enforcement after a lifetime of dreaming of becoming a cop.

“He wanted to be a cop since he was four,” said his sister, Carol Johnson of Lakewood, recalling how her little brother would play with toy police cars.

The pair saw each other just three days earlier, when Toney and dozens of friends and family, many from his native Orange County, celebrated his birthday in Las Vegas. Over the phone Saturday, Johnson and Toney were talking about his plans to return home for Thanksgiving.

That’s when Toney received a dispatch call about a suspicious vehicle near a middle school nearby.

“He said, ‘I’ll call you back once I’m done with this call,’” Johnson said. A little while later, she got a call back from Toney’s commanding officer — her brother was dead.

Toney was approaching the vehicle, a black sedan parked near Shiloh Middle School in Lilburn, Ga., when someone started firing from inside, striking him. Other officers nearby pulled him to cover and returned fire. The car sped away.

Toney died from his wounds at a local hospital, said Chief Butch Ayers later that night in front of Gwinnett County’s police headquarters.

“He was one of the good ones,” Johnson said. “It hurts so bad.”

Following the shooting, police launched a manhunt to find whoever killed Toney, a longtime Tustin resident who got his start as a teenager explorer with the Orange Police Department.

Toney previously lived in Bellflower and grew up in Orange and Tustin. He would have marked his third year with Gwinnett County police this week.

After the shooting, the suspects’ car was found crashed in a neighborhood about one mile away. Officers said four people were seen fleeing from the car.

During a search of the area, police said one of the suspects, 19-year-old Isaiah Pretlow, fired a gun at a Gwinnett officer. The officer fired back, but neither was hit.

Pretlow fled into a wooded area. SWAT officers and police dogs searched the woods and checked several nearby buildings.

Officers with the U.S. Marshals who joined the search later found Pretlow and arrested him. He was charged with aggravated assault in connection with the rounds fired at the searching officer.

Police said they were still looking for 18-year-old Tafahree Maynard, who was charged with aggravated assault and felony murder.

Officials said they believe Maynard was the driver of the black car. They also believe Maynard fired the shots that killed Toney.

The other two people seen fleeing the vehicle have not been identified and have not been named as suspects.

Family and former colleagues of Toney on Sunday described him as a joyful person who loved helping others.

On its Facebook page Sunday, the Orange Police Department said Toney volunteered as a police explorer with its department in 2006. The agency called him “a beloved part” of the program.

Before moving to Georgia in 2015, Toney lived in Bellflower with Johnson, who said much of their family still resides in Orange County and around Southern California.

They were longtime residents of Tustin, Johnson said. Toney went to El Modena High School in Orange, where he ran track. After graduating, she said, he enrolled at Santiago Canyon College.

While taking classes at Santiago, Toney applied to the Los Angeles Police Department and sheriff’s departments in L.A. and Orange County.

Around 2014, as he was still in the application process for those departments, police in Gwinnett County reached out to Toney to recruit him. A friend of his had already moved to the Atlanta area, Johnson said, so he took the chance and moved to Georgia to start his law enforcement career.

Becoming a police officer was his lifelong dream, Toney’s sister said Sunday.

“His life was just starting,” she said.

Johnson said her brother endeared himself to others through his outgoing and caring personality.

“No matter where we were, I knew we would have a good time,” she said. “Whether we were sitting on a park bench, on the curb, we’d be having the time of our lives with laughter.”

Johnson said as an African-American and a police officer, Toney felt a special responsibility to represent the caring side of law enforcement at a time of increased tensions between police and black communities.

“In this climate, with all that’s going on, between police brutality and officer-involve shootings, he wanted to show he was one of the good ones,” she said. “His goal was too bridge that gap.”

Others who worked with him on the police force also saw that spark.

In a Facebook post, Brooke Nicole Merola, a dispatcher working for Gwinnett County Police according to WXIA-TV in Atlanta, shared a video of Toney and his partner on patrol. In the post, she said a woman called “mad as heck” about a group of kids in her cul-de-sac.

Merola said Toney and the other officer responded. They challenged the kids to a game of pick-up basketball. Video of the officers playing with the children had more than 800,000 views by Sunday afternoon.

“He was a genuinely caring human that wanted this world to be better,” Merola said. “His eyes and smile lit up every single room he walked into.”

 

Several officers from Gwinnett County will travel to Orange County on Monday to meet Toney’s family and escort them back to Georgia. On Wednesday, they will attend the department’s memorial service for Toney.

Johnson said Toney’s family was planning a local memorial service for Nov. 3. A location has not been decided. Toney is survived by his mother and three older siblings.