On a summer day in Toccoa, Georgia, the lives of two men came to a tragic end at the Regency Inn on West Currahee Street. On Tuesday, July 5, 2022, police were called to the motel with reports of a person being shot. Inside one of the rooms, they discovered 52-year-old Keith Bernard Tooley, a resident of Toccoa, who had sustained a fatal gunshot wound. Despite the immediate aid rendered by the officers, Tooley succumbed to his injuries at the scene.
The investigation into the shooting led officers to another room in the motel, a room that Tooley had reportedly visited earlier. Inside, they found 32-year-old Chanin Emil Mayfield, also from Toccoa, armed with a handgun. According to reports, the officers gave verbal commands for Mayfield to drop his weapon. When he did not comply, the officers discharged their firearms, fatally wounding him. Like Tooley, Mayfield died at the scene despite attempts to provide medical assistance. A handgun was recovered from the location.
In the aftermath of the two deaths, the Toccoa Police Department requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to conduct an independent inquiry into both the death of Keith Bernard Tooley and the officer-involved shooting of Chanin Emil Mayfield. At the time of the initial reports, it had not been officially stated whether Mayfield was considered a suspect in Tooley's death. The GBI's investigation was set to be turned over to the Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office for review upon its completion. No subsequent announcements regarding arrests or further suspects in the death of Keith Bernard Tooley have been made.
