ATLANTA _ An hours-long standoff with a man who shot two Henry County, Ga., police officers and then barricaded himself inside a home came to an end early Friday morning after the gunman killed two people and then turned the gun on himself, police said.
A SWAT team went inside the home on Eagle Court in Stockbridge about 3 a.m. after hearing nothing from the gunman, according to Henry County police Capt. Joey Smith. There, they found three bodies, bringing to an end a tense standoff that started midmorning Thursday and stretched well into the pre-dawn hours Friday.
The victims were a woman, her 16-year-old son and the gunman, Smith said. He said the woman was about 36 weeks pregnant. "Our gunman, it appears, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Smith said. "That was confirmed by the (Georgia State Patrol) SWAT entry team."
Police have not released the names of the victims.
Officers responded to the home along Eagle Court, not far from I-75 in the Eagle Ridge neighborhood, about 10:45 a.m. in response to a report of "unknown trouble," Smith said Thursday afternoon. Investigators believe a relative of someone inside the house called 911 to report some type of violence.
The officers arrived at the scene and forced their way into the home when they were shot, Smith said. The officers did not return fire.
One officer was struck in the hand and the second was hit in the torso and hip area, according to Smith. The officer struck in the hand was able to assist his fellow officer getting out of the home. The two officers, both in their 30s, have been with the police department for several years.
Both were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in serious condition, according to Smith. Their conditions were not believed to be life-threatening. Their names have not been released.
A Georgia State Patrol SWAT team was activated after the two officers were shot, as the gunman remained barricaded inside the home. Negotiators knew the gunman had the teen boy and the woman inside, Smith said. The suspect refused to assure police the two inside the home were uninjured, so officers resorted to firing tear gas into the home about 9 p.m.
"We felt (the suspect) was being dishonest," Smith said. "We had no contact with the 16-year-old, or any idea that the female was OK."
Neighbors who were trapped in their homes described the loud bangs and gunfire they heard around that time.
"It was like a bomb went off at first, but now it's just shooting _ a lot of shooting," Dwight Taylor told Channel 2 Action News on the phone.
Smith said officers deployed gas canisters "that sounds like gunfire."
An attempt to enter the home was halted when the suspect fired multiple shots at SWAT officers, he confirmed at 11 p.m. No one was hurt, and officers did not return fire or engage with the suspect until the SWAT team entered the home early Friday.
Russell Blanding, a resident of the Eagle Ridge subdivision, was stuck in his home as the standoff played out. He was getting ready to go to work Thursday when law enforcement arrived and cordoned off the neighborhood. Blanding said he did not know the residents in the home and that they had lived there only for the past six months.
Smith said it will be some time before authorities are able to go back inside the house to investigate further.
"Right now we're just trying to secure the scene," Smith said. "There's a lot of damage to the home. There were some chemical agents used to make entry and we cannot assess the house."
Thursday's shooting occurred just days after a Union City police officer was shot multiple times Monday evening after responding to a home on Stonewall Drive. Officer Jerome Turner Jr. is stable and recovering at Grady after undergoing surgery, police said. A fellow Union City officer was seen carrying "Get Well" balloons into the hospital Thursday afternoon.
It was the second time in four months a Henry County officer was shot in the line of duty. On Dec. 6, Officer Michael Smith was shot while trying to subdue a man outside a dental office. Smith, 33, died from his injuries Dec. 28.
Six Georgia officers died in the line of duty in 2018, including four in metro Atlanta. Smith was the second Henry officer to die in 2018. In February, Locust Grove police Officer Chase Maddox was shot and killed while assisting deputies serving a warrant.
So far this year, one Georgia officer has been killed in the line of duty. On Jan. 29, Glascock County Deputy Joshua Ryer Jr. was killed in a two-vehicle crash while on the way to pick up an inmate. The 19-year-old had been with the department for five months.
