UPDATE: University Police Officer Stabbed Near Woodruff Park, Suspect Shot

UPDATE (6:50 p.m.): The Atlanta Police Department has released the following statement regarding the officer-involved shooting in Woodruff Park on Wednesday afternoon:

Shortly before 4 p.m. today (August 27), an Atlanta Police Officer attempted to question a man who appeared to be drinking alcohol in Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta.

The man continued walking, and encountered a Georgia State University Police Officer in plain clothes, who was attempting to assist the APD officer in the apprehension of the subject. The subject produced a large butcher knife, and assaulted the GSU officer with it.

The Atlanta Police Officer witnessed the assault, and shot the subject in order to stop the assault. The GSU officer sustained injuries as a result of the knife attack. The subject and the GSU officer were transported to the hospital and are in stable condition.

The large knife in possession of the subject was recovered on scene. APD’s Office of Professional Standards and Homicide Unit are conducting an investigation, as is customary with officer-involved shootings. The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office was also on scene.

UPDATE (6:20 p.m.): WSB-TV reports that the plainclothes Georgia State University police officer who was stabbed by a man outside Woodruff Park was about to join a detail transporting university president Mark Becker to the university’s first home football game of the season.

WSB-TV also says that the Atlanta Police Department officer who shot the man attacking the University police officer just before 4 p.m. on Wednesday was a woman.

Both the assailant and the victim have been taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for their injuries. The officer is expected to recover.

UPDATE (5:45 p.m.): CBS Atlanta’s Chris Peters has tweeted a photograph which allegedly shows the knife used by a man to attack a plainclothes Georgia State University police officer outside Woodruff Park on Wednesday afternoon.

A uniformed Atlanta police officer then shot the attacker, Georgia State University announced on its Twitter. The assailant has been transported to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment.

UPDATE (5:35 p.m.): The person who was attacked by a man who was shot by a police officer just outside Woodruff Park on Wednesday afternoon was a Georgia State University police officer in plainclothes, WSB-TV confirms.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that the incident happened at approximately 4 p.m. Wednesday. An Atlanta fire spokesperson told the AJC that the “unknown person” used an “unknown object” to attack the officer. A second police officer then fired on the attacker.

The wounded man was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.

Patch reported at 4:45 p.m. that the Georgia State University’s Twitter account had announced that one of its police officers had been stabbed.

UPDATE (5:05 p.m.): WSB-TV has obtained footage of the officer-involved shooting just outside Woodruff Park on Wednesday afternoon.

The video shows a uniformed police officer following a man in an orange or red shirt as he walks across Edgewood Avenue away from the park. The officer, who is wearing shorts, appears to be holding a firearm. The man in the orange or red shirt may be carrying a knife; a witness told Georgia State University’s newspaper The Signal that he saw the man carrying a “butcher knife.”

The man in the orange or red shirt crosses Peachtree Street and approaches another person in dark clothing standing by a black SUV just outside the Georgia State University Police headquarters building and begins fighting with him or her. It is not clear whether or not the other person involved in the altercation is a police officer.

The officer wearing shorts appears to fire a shot at the attacker. The video is stopped right as the gunshot is heard.

Patch has embedded WSB-TV’s video at the bottom of this article.

UPDATE (4:55 p.m.): Panther Report, Georgia State University’s television news program, reports on Twitter that a man was shot by police after he brandished a knife in Woodruff Park. The man was apprehended, and there is no danger to the student body.

UPDATE (4:45 p.m.): Both GaFollowers.com and the official Twitter account of Georgia State University confirm that a University police officer was stabbed near Woodruff Park on Wednesday afternoon.

According to the university’s Twitter, the person who stabbed the University police officer was then shot by an Atlanta police officer. The wounded suspect has been transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, which is near Woodruff Park.

No word has been released on the stabbed officer’s condition.

ORIGINAL STORY (4:30 p.m.): Atlanta police are investigating an officer-involved shooting which took place in or near Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta.

According to FOX 5 Atlanta, the officer was not hit by gunfire. WSB-TV reports that the officer opened fire after he was cut by a man inside the park. Police did not report if the officer’s shots struck anyone nor did they describe the condition of the officer involved in the incident.

Patch has reached out to the Atlanta Police Department and will update this story as more details become available.