SWAT Officer Also Aided in Brian Nichols Capture

The Gwinnett Police officer who fatally shot the Suwanee hostage-taker during the April 10 standoff also was involved in another high profile incident.

Sgt. Jason Teague has been released from the hospital after suffering a gunshot wound to his left forearm and undergoing surgery. The wound came in a gunfire exchange with Lauren Brown, who held five Gwinnett firefighters hostage for several hours after a 911 call that was a hoax.

Teague was allowed to come home April 13. Doctors think he will make a full recovery and should be able to return to duty in a few months, according to a news release issued by the Gwinnett Police Department.

Teague also was involved in the 2005 Brian Nichols slaying saga that began in a courthouse in Atlanta, according to the news release.

Nichols, who was on trial for rape, beat a courthouse deputy, grabbed her gun, and then shot to death a judge, a court reporter and another deputy before fleeing, according to reports.

Nichols later shot to death a federal agent in Buckhead before his flight brought him to Gwinnett County.

In Gwinnett, Teague actually placed the handcuffs on Nichols and later testified at his trial for the slayings. Nichols had barricaded himself in an apartment in Duluth. A woman that Nichols took hostage, Ashley Smith Robinson, had alerted police to Nichols' whereabouts.

Teague, the senior tactical team leader for the Gwinnett Police SWAT Team, has been with Gwinnett Police since 1996 and a member of the SWAT team since 2002.

~ Suwanee Patch