The person who shot and killed a Gwinnett County corrections officer on Tuesday morning is still out there.
At 6:20 a.m., there was a shooting outside the Gwinnett County Correctional Center on Hi Hope Road near Swanson Drive. The victim was 59-year-old Scott Riner, who worked at the center for 10 years. He was named by the police.
Investigators think that the suspect and Riner had a fight before Riner was shot. Police say that Riner’s coworkers found him dead in the parking lot after he had been shot.
Police said that they don’t know what the suspect looks like yet, but they did release a picture of the person they are looking for.
“It’s too soon to tell if this could have been random or planned,” said Gwinnett police PIO Jennifer Richter. “But we’re looking into every possibility.”
Tuesday afternoon, police released a second picture of the person and called him or her a “suspect.”
Detectives want to hear from anyone who was in the area where the shooting happened between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Police said they are especially interested in people who may have dashcam footage from the area.
The correctional complex is where people who have been sentenced and are on supervised work crews serve their time. Some people in jail can also work to pay off fines.
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Tom Jones from Channel 2 was at the prison on Tuesday, where people on work release spoke well of Riner.
Residents who live at the facility but are allowed to go to work said Riner treated them with respect and didn’t judge them or look down on them.
Santino Cole said, “I thought he was a cool officer.” “He didn’t make any trouble for anyone. He was a very good person. “Good morning,” he said. How y’all doing?'” Cole said that losing Riner was very sad for him.
Sgt. Jennifer Richter said that police are still looking for evidence step by step, but they are doing this with heavy hearts. Richter said, “It’s very hard whenever we lose one of our own.”
Cole said he never thought a corrections officer would be killed on the job. “It made me crazy. “When I heard that, I was very surprised,” Cole said. “I don’t know, maybe one of the prisoners took something that was important to me.”
One person Jones talked to said that Riner gave him advice, telling him to finish his probation and pick a career that will take him far in life. The police say they will keep searching until they find out who killed Riner.
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