What We Know About the Fatal Newnan Police Shooting of 18-Year-Old Zadarious Dorsey

 An 18-year-old Newnan man, Zadarious Dorsey, died after a Newnan police officer shot him during a foot pursuit early Saturday, October 3, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The shooting occurred around 1 a.m. after an officer encountered a white vehicle near Dodson Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The agency identified Dorsey as the person killed. No officers were injured in the incident, according to the preliminary release.

The preliminary account begins with the officer following the white car until it stopped on Cliff Circle. When the officer approached and attempted to speak with the driver, five men exited the vehicle, investigators said, before the pursuit began. One walked toward a nearby home, while four ran from the area. The officer pursued one of those men, later identified as Dorsey. The GBI has not explained what initially prompted the officer to follow the vehicle, leaving that part unresolved.

During the foot chase, the officer gave Dorsey verbal commands to stop, according to the GBI. The officer then deployed a Taser, but investigators said it was ineffective. The pursuit continued through the area before the officer saw Dorsey pull a gun from his waistband area. The officer ordered him to stop and drop the weapon, the GBI said, and then fired multiple shots. Those details describe the officer’s reported account as summarized by investigators; they do not establish every circumstance as a final finding.

Officers provided medical aid to Dorsey at the scene while emergency medical personnel responded. He was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died from his injuries. The GBI said a gun was recovered at the scene. Investigators have not said whether Dorsey fired the weapon or pointed it at the officer. That distinction is important because the investigation is still underway, and officials have not released a completed reconstruction of the moments immediately before the shots were fired or what happened afterward.

The identity of the officer involved has not been released. The GBI has not identified the other four men who left the vehicle, and officials have not provided a reason for the original vehicle encounter. Those unanswered questions are now part of the broader effort by investigators to establish what happened before, during and after the shooting. The agency’s preliminary information should therefore be understood as an initial account rather than a final determination about the officer’s actions or Dorsey’s movements.

The investigation will include an autopsy through the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office. Once investigators complete their work, the case will be submitted to the Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review. Prosecutors will examine the evidence and determine what conclusions or further action are warranted. Until those steps are completed, however, important details about the shooting remain subject to confirmation, including the sequence of events surrounding the gun and the officer’s use of force.

For Newnan, the death places a young resident at the center of a police investigation whose facts are still developing. Dorsey was 18, and his death followed an encounter that began with a vehicle stop and ended with multiple gunshots and a hospital death. The official account establishes the broad timeline but leaves significant questions unanswered. As the independent investigation proceeds, the autopsy, physical evidence and other findings will help provide a fuller and more reliable record of what happened that morning.