A Cochran neighborhood is confused and devastated after a Bleckley County Sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man Friday night during an arrest.

It seems like a war of words now, the Sheriff's Department said Rasheen Wright, 31, was in the process of being handcuffed when a struggle ensued. The Sheriff Department statement said deputies tased Wright until the charge died. Once it didn't have power, the statement said Wright pulled a gun on a deputy and the second officer reacted by shooting Wright one time in the shoulder. However, eye-witnesses say otherwise.

"He was trying to stand up for help or try to run or what,” eyewitness to the incident and neighbor Phillip Chambers said. “An officer took like a step back and he pulled his gun and he shot him and as soon as he shot him, my friend fell back on the ground and just laid there."

Wright having a gun isn't the only conflicting statement between witnesses and the Sheriff's Office. Wright’s cousin, Kevin Wright said Wright was transported to Bleckley County Memorial Hospital, not the Medical Center of Central Georgia where the Sheriff's Office said he was pronounced dead.

“Funeral home, Bobby Mathis, came to the hospital (Bleckley County Memorial Hospital) and pronounced him dead. He never made it to the Medical Center,” Wright said. “They might have taken him afterwards, after he died over here, to cover it up.”

Whatever happened on Friday night, family members and neighbors agree the incident will be tough to put behind them.

"It's going to be hard to forget, I mean it's going to be hard to forget this," brother of the victim, George Wright said.
Since witnessing the incident many people including Wright said it’s taking a toll on their lives.

"I can't eat, I can barely go to sleep,” Wright said. “All I can do is lie down and just keep thinking about what happened."

Family members aren’t the only people in the neighborhood shook up.

"Most of my neighbors have been coming out each morning saying they barely slept last night,” Chambers said. “They tossed and turned because they could not get the picture out of their head of the man just falling back to the ground."

In the last 48 hours, neighbors have been coming out of their houses to comfort one another and Wright’s family who lives in the neighborhood. However, the family said they are grief stricken by the incident.

"It's going to take me awhile to forget about it and get the vision out of my head about how it happened,” Wright said.

The case has been turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and both deputies have been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.