COVINGTON, Ga. - Members of the Newton County Board of Commissioners asked for prayers and offered words of support for Officer Matt Cooper at Tuesday night’s meeting.

BOC Chairman Marcello Banes said he had visited with Officer Cooper and his family at the hospital. He asked Rev. Dr. Lane Collins of Zion Baptist Church to pray for Officer Cooper and the community at the start of the meeting.

“As you know, we had an officer who got injured in the line of duty yesterday. I had the opportunity today to go over and visit with him and his family. I just wanted to say if there’s ever been a time for this community to be together in prayer, that time is now.”

District 2 Commissioner Lanier Sims said,” Yesterday with the news of the shooting, It hit me pretty hard. I’m very close to a lot of our deputies, our firemen, Covington Fire Department, Covington Police Department.

“It really rocked my world yesterday. I’ve been just really torn through this whole thing. I would just ask that everybody continue to pray for our police officer, pray for his family, pray for his kids. Pray for the doctors, pray for the nurses at Grady. We look forward to bringing him home.”

District 3 Commissioner Nancy Schulz echoed Sims’ words.

“Anytime one of our own is involved in something as frightening as what happened yesterday, it makes us realize how dependent we are on our public safety personnel and how important they are to the life of our community.

“I know that we are all united in support and prayer for this young man.”

District 5 Commissioner Ronnie Cowan, a former Covington police officer and human resources director said, “It’s very sad. I hired him about six years ago. It’s difficult to know that those things could happen in our community, but we just pray that the Lord watch over him and I ask y’all to pray for him.”