Corrections officer shot dead in prison parking lot: 'He was our family'

A senior corrections officer at a Georgia prison was murdered early Tuesday morning, shot dead in the parking lot of the facility where he worked.

According to reports, Scott Riner, 59, had just arrived for work at the Gwinnett Correctional Center, about an hour northeast of Atlanta, around 6:20 a.m. when he had an interaction with an unidentified "individual" in the parking lot. The exact nature and the length of the interaction are currently unknown, but reports indicate that the individual eventually shot Riner and fled the scene on foot. Riner died at the scene almost immediately, even before other officers could come and render medical assistance.

"The best that we can tell at this time is that the victim was involved in some kind of a confrontation or interaction with another individual here in the parking lot and that that individual did shoot him," said Gwinnett Police Department's Sgt. Jennifer Richter.

Though police, always eager to defend and honor the memory of one of their own, have made the investigation an immediate priority, they have released little information about the shooting thus far. They are currently looking for information from anyone who may have been "in the area of Hi Hope Road and Swanson Drive, including Hurricane Shoals Road, Swanson, and Georgia 316 between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning," FOX 5 Atlanta reports. They are particularly interested in "dash cam footage" from that timeframe.

Police have also released a grainy video of the suspect in the hopes that a viewer will be able to give a positive identification: