Suspect Tried to Drown State Trooper Before Being Shot and Killed

GAINESVILLE — Georgia State Patrol’s Operation Thunder was suspended over the weekend following a violent confrontation that ended when a suspect was shot to death and three troopers injured in Gainesville.

Rodrigo Guardiola, 36, of Gainesville was shot and killed after he fled a road check on Highway 53 designed to take impaired drivers off the highways. After a brief chase, Guardiola and his passenger Epitacio Gudino-Almazan, 31, also from the Gainesville area, exited a Ford Explorer and fled on foot.

A press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation states, “As one of the pursuing troopers caught up to Guardiola at a run-off creek, a struggle ensued at which point Guardiola was fighting the trooper and attempting to submerge him underwater.The trooper that was submerged and beaten fired his Taser at Guardiola with no effective impact, at which point the trooper fired his pistol striking and killing Guardiola,” according to the release.

Gudino-Almazan was captured nearby about 45 minutes later and taken to the Hall County Jail.

GBI spokesman Scott Dutton said it was not known why Guardiola and Gudino-Almazan ran and that neither was wanted by authorities.

The troopers were taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening, and they have since been released.