DeKalb County, Georgia police officer Ann Guinta was killed in the line of duty on July 20, 2002 when her cruiser crashed into a ravine and struck a tree. Guinta was responding to a report of a fight over $1.75 on a MARTA transit bus.

Guinta was a uniform patrol officer and highly decorated five-year veteran of the DeKalb County central precinct.

Guinta was eastbound with blue lights and siren on North Decatur Road around 11 a.m. when her cruiser went into a wooded ravine as she tried to avoid a truck. She died at the scene. She was responding to assist officers in a physical confrontation involving the MARTA driver and passenger Darrell Watkins. Watkins was arrested when the bus stopped on Memorial Drive and I-285 and charged with disorderly conduct.

She is the first female Dekalb officer to die in the line of duty. She was the first DeKalb County officer to be killed in a traffic accident since 1998, when Officer Ricardo Torres and Officer Jarvis D. Crumbley died in separate accidents.

Guinta was a single mother and is survived by a 6-year-old son. She was 34 years old.

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