<p>A DeKalb County police officer was mortally wounded in a shootout Thursday evening in which a suspect also died, authorities said.</p><p>Police said two officers responded to reports of a suspicious person at a Stone Mountain apartment complex about 7 p.m.</p><p>A suspect reportedly was being chased on foot when he fired on police, who returned fire. Witnesses said they heard at least 10 shots in rapid succession.</p><p>The wounded officer was carried to DeKalb Medical Center in Decatur. The suspect was dead at the scene.</p><p>A police spokesman, Sgt. Charles Dedrick, confirmed about three hours later that the officer had died. Dedrick would say only that during the foot chase, "shots were fired," without elaborating on whether the suspect fired first and whether one or both officers returned fire.</p><p>By 9 p.m., police had herded at least three people into patrol cars, and were poring over the grassy lawn behind the building at the Mountain Crest apartments, where several shell casings remained.</p><p>Joanie Thompson said she was on the phone with a friend when she heard a series of shots and immediately thought of her 11-year-old, who had gone outside to play.</p><p>"I screamed on the phone, 'My son, my son,' " she said.</p><p>It was the second fatal shooting involving a DeKalb police officer this month. On June 5, an officer responding to a call for "trouble unknown" was met by a man waving his arms outside a home.</p><p>Another man then fired shots at the officer, and the officer returned fire, killing him.</p><p>The officer and the man who was waving his arms also were wounded.</p>
