ATLANTA—Two deputies were killed in an ambush while attempting to serve a warrant at a home in a suburb near Atlanta, a sheriff said Friday.
The two deputies had returned to their vehicle after knocking on the door when another car pulled up Thursday night, Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens said. The deputies got out of the vehicle and were talking to a suspect when shots were fired, he said.
The deputies were able to call for help and law enforcement officers swarmed the neighborhood. A long standoff ensued with at least one person. Owens said two suspects were taken into custody and questioned.
“Our hearts are broken here in Cobb County, and it’s going to take some prayers to help us get back to where we need to be,” he said at a news conference. “But it’s not going to be an easy road.”
The sheriff did not immediately release the names of the slain deputies.
Court records identified the two men in custody as Christopher Golden and Christopher Cook. They said Golden was charged with felony murder and aggravated assault on law enforcement officers, news outlets reported. The records said the deputies had a warrant to arrest Cook on multiple outstanding theft charges.
The suspects were scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon, and authorities planned a news conference afterward.
The sheriff’s office in Cobb County wrote on Twitter initially that two deputies had “died in the line of duty” and that a SWAT team and other law enforcement officers remained at the scene, where a suspect was barricaded. It wasn’t clear how the standoff was resolved, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the home’s front door was out of its frame and several front windows were broken.
The deputies had each served in the department for more than five years, Owens said. They were serving a warrant for failure to appear on a charge of theft by deception, he said.
Sprawling Cobb County, with more than 760,000 people, is just northwest of Atlanta and one of Georgia’s most populous counties.
