A Warm Springs, Georgia police sergeant was fatally shot five days after an arrest in which he punched a suspect and used a Taser on him, with one prong striking near the man’s ear. The suspect, 23-year-old Jimmy Lee Steverson, died the following day from what authorities describe as a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being stopped by South Carolina deputies. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry into both incidents remains active.
The Arrest at the Marathon Gas Station
On the night of August 27, 2025, Warm Springs Police Sgt. Chris Fisher, 36, pulled over Steverson at a Marathon gas station after telling him he smelled marijuana coming from his truck. Steverson denied having marijuana and questioned whether Fisher recognized him or was targeting him specifically. Fisher told him he intended to search both Steverson and the truck.
The encounter turned physical after Fisher instructed Steverson to turn around so he could be detained. Fisher’s body camera cuts out for approximately 20 seconds during the struggle; Warm Springs police said something either struck the camera hard or knocked it off Fisher’s vest during the confrontation. When footage resumes, Steverson is on the ground with a Taser prong near his ear.
After other officers arrived, Fisher described what had happened to fellow officers: “He’s got a Taser in his ear, a Taser prong in his ear. And I punched him in the face a couple times.” Fisher said Steverson had resisted and swung at him after he attempted to take him to the ground, that he had slipped during the struggle, and that he punched Steverson before deploying the Taser. In an exchange captured on camera, Steverson pushed back on that account — “On my life, I didn’t swing… I swung on you?” — to which Fisher replied, “You did, and then you swung after I swung.”
Police said they recovered marijuana and firearms from Steverson’s truck. He was charged with possession or distribution of marijuana, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer. He was released from Meriwether County jail on August 28 after posting a combined $10,000 bond, following roughly 12 to 14 hours in custody.
Questions About the Available Footage
The body-camera gap isn’t the only limitation in the public record of what happened that night. Before Warm Springs police released Fisher’s body-camera footage, Steverson’s family provided local outlet 11Alive with a cellphone recording taken of part of the gas station’s surveillance footage, displayed from a monitor rather than the original file. That recording also had a roughly two-minute gap between clips and did not show why Fisher first approached the truck, the full exchange before the physical struggle, or a complete view of the confrontation itself.
When an 11Alive reporter later requested the complete surveillance footage from the gas station directly, an employee said it had already been erased. It’s not clear from available reporting whether that was standard retention practice or something else.
Police officer fatally shot five days later by man he punched and tased in the ear during an arrest 😳 pic.twitter.com/y23wa2L5Uq
— Rain Drops Media (@Raindropsmedia1) September 26, 2026
The Shooting
Five days later, on September 1, 2025, Fisher was on duty, seated in his parked patrol car in the parking lot of the Meriwether Country Inn following an unrelated traffic stop. At approximately 11:57 p.m., according to the GBI’s preliminary account, Steverson pulled his truck alongside Fisher’s patrol vehicle and fired multiple shots into the car. Fisher was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators have described the shooting as a targeted attack.
Steverson’s Death
Steverson fled the scene. The next day, deputies in Anderson County, South Carolina, stopped a vehicle on Interstate 85 in which he was a passenger. They found him with what the GBI described as an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Paramedics transported him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The GBI has publicly identified Steverson as the shooter in Fisher’s death but has not released a final motive finding, and its investigation into the full sequence of events remains active.
A Department Already Under Scrutiny — But Not Confirmed to Be Connected
Fisher’s killing came while the Warm Springs Police Department was still working through the aftermath of a separate, unrelated scandal. In June 2024, the city fired then-Chief Emilio Quintana and suspended 11 officers following what officials described as “recent events and emerging concerns” about the department’s conduct, prompting investigations from the GBI and the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council.
In the aftermath, Aisha Al-Khalifa was left as the department’s only active officer and was promoted to interim chief. In May 2026, the GBI arrested Al-Khalifa and charged her with making false statements and violating her oath of office in connection with the state’s investigation into the department. Matthew Mayfield has served as interim chief since March 4, 2026.
It’s important to be precise here: the GBI has not publicly connected the 2024 misconduct investigation, Quintana’s firing, the officer suspensions, or Al-Khalifa’s case to Fisher’s killing. The two are linked only by the department’s ongoing leadership turmoil during this period — the public record does not establish that the earlier scandal caused or contributed to the shooting.
Fisher had joined the department earlier that year and had recently been promoted to sergeant.
What Remains Under Investigation
The GBI’s investigation into both the arrest and the shooting remains active, and a final account of what happened during the initial struggle at the gas station — given the gaps in both the body-camera and surveillance footage — has not been publicly established.
