AUGUSTA, Ga. - The Richmond County Sheriff's Office says three deputies were involved at the shooting at Cherry Tree Crossing Housing Project on Sunday, but only the two deputies who fired are on administrative leave pending an investigation.

Richmond County deputies Jose Rivera Ortiz and Michael Hodge are assigned to administrative duties while The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reviews the shooting.

The suspect, 23-year-old Justin Elmore, is in critical condition at a MCGHealth and likely on life support according to the Sheriff.

Eight extra deputies are assigned to patrol the Cherry Tree Crossing area for added security.

Monday, Sheriff Strength asked the community to wait before jumping to conclusions about what led to Sunday night's shooting and chaos.

"We received information that a subject driving a dark colored SUV was in the Cherry Tree Crossing area with drugs and weapons in the vehicle," said Sherrif Strength.

After deputies stopped and boxed in Justin Elmore's SUV, they say he tried to run them over. Officers say they felt their lives were in danger and opened fire.
Sheriff Strength has seen the police dash cam video that caught the whole incident on tape. He doesn’t question his deputies’ motives.

“It's premature, but at this point it definitely looks like they were justified," said Sheriff Strength.

But Elmore's brother disagrees.

"He just pulled up to the stop sign right there and they opened fire on him for no reason,” said Michael Elmore. “They just shot him up."

Some of bullets ended up hitting an apartment with a family of six inside.

When deputies opened fire on Elmore, stray bullets flew through a window in the apartment and nearly missed a child's head.

"A bullet shot past by little boy's by about three inches and almost busted his head open,” the father of the house said angrily. “If that bullet would have hit my little boy, his brains would have been in my hands."

Many were outraged and chose take their frustration to the street, Sunday night.

Fires raged throughout dumpsters in the housing projects and mobs threw rocks and glass bottles at deputies.

The chaos ended once officers in riot gear swept through the area and issued a curfew.

Sheriff Strength says it's too early in the investigation to say how many shots were fired or whether Elmore had a weapon on him or not.

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