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‘I’m like bro, you’re joking’: Man mistakenly arrested for shooting police officer wants apology

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A man arrested for shooting a Clayton County police officer is speaking out about his ordeal.

“My cousin called me and said bro, your picture is on the Clayton County police website. I’m like bro, you’re joking, and I hang up on him,” Arterio Crumbley told Channel 2′s Tom Regan.

Police admitted this week to a case of mistaken identity, and all charges relating to the March double shooting have been dropped against Crumbley.

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He said he is looking for an apology and planning to sue the county.

On March 2, Clayton County police responded to a shopping center on Riverdale Road to reports of an armed robbery. Police said a suspect shot Officer Ryan Richey and the robbery victim before he ran from the scene. The officer has fully recovered and is back on the job.

Police said they spoke with several witnesses and the victim and later identified Crumbley as a suspect.

“I was immediately crushed. I didn’t know what to do,” he said.

He decided to turn himself in.

“I walked in and I said, ‘I’m the guy you’re looking for on the news.’ They like, ‘Get down, get down,” Crumbley said.

He told police he was nowhere near place where the officer was shot. At the time of the shooting, he was at his Fayetteville home.

“The time the crime was happening, I was here on the porch with my son eating ice cream,” he said.

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He told Regan that after he turned himself in investigators searched his home.

“Tore it up, trying to find some evidence or whatever it is. To find ammunition or a gun,” he said.

Crumbley spent weeks in jail until Clayton police dropped the charges early this week.

They are now looking for a new suspect, Charles Payne.

Crumbley wants an apology and compensation

“A big lawsuit, however much it’s worth. The lawyers will be able to tell me how much it’s worth,” he said.

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Regan reached out to police and the sheriff’s office for comment, but they declined.

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