Injured U.S. Marshal task force officer released from hospital

ATLANTA — A U.S. Marshal has been released from the hospital after he was shot in the leg during a drug raid at a Southwest Atlanta home early Thursday morning.

Officials said Officer James Hobbs was shot in the calf as his team from the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force attempted to serve a search and arrest warrant on Titus Bates.

"As we were serving an arrest warrant, the suspect fired a weapon through the door and struck one of our deputy marshals," said Supervisor Investigator Gavin Duffy of the Fugitive Task Force.

Duffy led the team, including Hobbs, to the doorstep.  He said they clearly identified themselves as U.S. Marshals when they knocked on Bates' door.

"Anytime we're going to serve an arrest warrant, we are knocking and announcing and clearly wearing labels such as this indicating that we're police," said Duffy.

Duffy said one of Bates' shots struck Hobbs in the leg.  They immediately pulled Hobbs out and brought in Clayton County Police Medics to help him.

"We extracted our injured, and we applied first aid," said Duffy.  "We travel and operated with medics organically within the teams and immediately started care and got him to the hospital where the great physicians and staff at Atlanta Medical Center took immediate care."

The marshals themselves transported Hobbs to the hospital.  Duffy praised the work of the medics in taking care of the wounded officer.

Hobbs is a 12-year veteran of the DeKalb Police Department and has been assigned to the Fugitive Task Force for the past three years.  He is expected to make a full recovery.

Duffy said they never returned fire at Bates, and he later surrendered to authorities.  He will face additional charges.

Duffy credits their training with helping them survived this scary incident.

"We brief and plan and train like you wouldn't believe," said Duffy.  "It was evident today as it always is that the training kicked in.  We were able to extract him quickly and take the suspect into custody without too much further incident."

WSBTV