Tafahree Maynard has been charged with aggravated assault and felony murder in the killing of Gwinnett County officer Antwan Toney on Saturday, the county's police department said. Maynard is still at large.
A second suspect, Isaiah Pretlow, was arrested Saturday and has been charged with aggravated assault, police said.
Officer Toney, 30, was shot as he approached a suspicious car parked near Shiloh Middle School, said Jake Smith of the Gwinnett County Police Department.
Another officer returned fire and dragged Toney away, Smith said, but he died at a hospital.
The suspects' four-door black sedan sped away and crashed about a mile away. Smith said there were as many as four people inside the car.
"They fled the scene and crashed without an officer in hot pursuit," Smith said.
Smith said it is unclear whether anyone in the suspects' car was hit or how many shots were fired.
Police presence was heavy Saturday evening in neighborhoods a few miles east of Stone Mountain. A helicopter flew above the vicinity of the middle school.
Toney, who was originally from Southern California, had been with the department for almost three years. Before he was an officer, he had been a security guard, police said.
His Gwinnett colleagues "recall a very jovial person who was dedicated to his job and dedicated to his community," Chief of Police Butch Ayers said.
Gwinnett County is in the metropolitan Atlanta area and has 920,000 residents. Toney's killing is the first line-of-duty death in the county since May 1993 when an officer was killed in a traffic accident.
Three officers were shot to death in April 1964.
Toney's death was the second fatal shooting of a law enforcement officer this week. North Carolina State Trooper Kevin K. Conner was killed Wednesday during a traffic stop near the border with South Carolina. A suspect was taken into custody.
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