Police Officer fatally shot, suspect fled in a Patrol Car
Found 9/6/01

ATLANTA - A man suspected of fatally shooting a 
police officer was arrested after he fled in a patrol car,
crashed the vehicle and then ran into a church where the 
rector subdued him during evening services, police said. Kimini
Atu was cornered inside the sacristy of St. Luke's Episcopal Church,
moments after police said he shot Officer Russell Stalnaker, 24.

Officers had stopped Archie on Wednesday evening when they 
found him pushing a pickup truck along a downtown street, said
Lt. William Charles. An argument started and officers wrestled him. 
As they tried to handcuff him, Archie pulled a gun and shot Stalnaker, 
Charles said. The officers returned fire and Archie, 24, jumped into 
a police car and tried to drive away. He wrecked about a block later 
and fled on foot.

At St. Luke's, Archie allegedly tried to steal a woman's car. When 
she screamed, he dropped the gun, dart inside the church and
ran down the aisle in front of worshipers, said parishioner Joe
Geshwilier. The church security guard gave chase along with the 
Rev. Spenser Simrill. "They chased the man down the aisle while the
service was going on, and he ran through a side door mistakenly into
the sacristry that holds the communion sacraments," Geshwiller said. 
Simrill, who once worked as a police officer, grabbed the man and 
held him in a bear hug until he stopped struggling, authorities said.

Archie was jailed overnight on a charge of  felony murder. Police
Chief Beverly Harvard said Stalnaker had been on on the force
for three years and was recently married. "We've lost a family 
member," she said. "For me, as a chief, it's almost like losing
a child."


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