FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — An hours-long stand off came to a deadly end Sunday after a deputy was shot twice.
Investigators said the whole thing started as a family dispute call.
The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office told Channel 2's Matt Johnson the deputy is out of the hospital and home with his family following the shooting.
Johnson watched on a long Hickory Hills Road as authorities tried to negotiate with the suspect who investigators ultimately found dead Sunday evening.
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Neighbors told Johnson they are still in shock.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” neighbor Mike Sussman told Johnson.
Sussman said he spent most of Sunday afternoon desperately trying to get home to check on his mother.
“It’s been a nerve-wracking day, not what I expected today,” Sussman said.
Sussman told Johnson that his mother, Barbara, lives just across the street from where authorities say a man barricaded himself inside after shooting a Forsyth County deputy.
“I heard the shot and I saw … then there were just a bunch of shots. Then I was always afraid if something came across,” witness Barbara Sussman said.
New SWAT vehicle just arrived. Authorities say they’re negotiating with the suspect. pic.twitter.com/IlcM9p6bAo
— Matt Johnson (@MattWSB) July 16, 2017
The SWAT standoff began at around 3 p.m. when Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman said someone opened fire on deputies responding to a domestic disturbance.
The suspect's family members told deputies he had threatened them with a gun on Akins Way in Cumming.
“All we wanted to do was speak to him and get his side of the story when we were met with gunfire,” Freeman said
The sheriff said a veteran deputy in his late 50s was shot twice in the leg.
Law enforcement from multiple agencies then descended on the Hickory Hills subdivision with SWAT vehicles.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Forsyth County Sheriff's Deputy who was shot responding to a call this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/9aeUQmRj6Y
— Gwinnett County Police (@GwinnettPd) July 16, 2017
By around eight o'clock authorities say they found the suspect dead and they say he appears to have shot himself.
“I wish the suspect hadn’t lost his life, but that was his choice,” Freeman told Johnson.
Neighbors said they're thankful no bystanders were caught up in the gunfire.
“I’m just glad my mom is safe, everybody else was safe, nobody else was injured,” Mike Sussman said.
The names of the suspect and the deputy involved have not yet been released.
The case has been turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Cox Media Group
