Police charge man with killing deputy

Web posted January 14, 1998

Associated Press

DUBLIN, Ga. -- A 49-year-old man accused of killing a Laurens County deputy was shouting and acting irrationally moments before gunning down the officer, Sheriff Kenny Webb said Tuesday after viewing a tape of the traffic stop that led to the shooting.

Andrew Howard Brannan of McDonough was arrested Tuesday morning after police found him hiding in a sleeping bag beneath a camouflage tarp, about 100 yards from the Laurens County house where police had tracked him after the Monday shooting.

Mr. Brannan, who had no previous criminal record, was charged with murder in the death of Deputy Kyle Dinkheller. He was taken to a hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound in the stomach, apparently inflicted by Deputy Dinkheller.

Deputy Dinkheller, 22, was shot with a rifle about 5:30 p.m. Monday after he stopped a man who was speeding in a white truck.

Mr. Brannan's ``behavior was real bizarre,'' Sheriff Webb said. ``He charged the deputy and was yelling, `Shoot me. Shoot me.'

``I don't understand what set him off, why he was acting the way he did. I just don't know. I wish I did.''

Mr. Brannan was clocked at speeds of up to 98 miles an hour on Interstate 16 before finally being stopped on a rural road about six miles northwest of Dublin near the Dudley community, Sheriff Webb said.

The sheriff said he couldn't tell from the videotape if Mr. Brannan knocked down Deputy Dinkheller during his initial charge at the officer, but the next thing he saw was Mr. Brannan going back to his vehicle.

``He got an M-1 carbine (rifle) and Dinkheller was pleading with him to drop the gun when out of the blue he (Brannan) started firing,'' the sheriff said.

``They both fired several rounds. I think Dinkheller was hit three times. The fatal wound was in the head. Brannan was wounded in the gut. I don't think he's going die.''

Mr. Brannan was listed in guarded condition Tuesday at a Dublin hospital.

After Deputy Dinkheller was killed, authorities tracked Mr. Brannan to a house near Dudley, where the white truck and a rifle were found, said John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

They sprayed the house with tear gas during the night but no one was found inside.

At daybreak, they began to search the area around the house and found Mr. Brannan in his makeshift hide-out, Mr. Bankhead said.

Deputy Dinkheller had been with the sheriff's department nearly three years. He was married and had a child about 18 months old.

Services are tentatively scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. at Jefferson Street Baptist Church in Dublin, with burial to follow at Dublin Memorial Gardens.

A fund to help the slain deputy's family has been set up at the Bank of Dudley.