Manner of death determined for police officer, woman found in Atlanta home
An Atlanta police officer was one of two people found dead inside a home near Piedmont Park on Saturday, authorities said.
Officers were asked to conduct a wellness check around 4 p.m. in the 600 block of Cooledge Avenue, Deputy Chief Prenzinna Spann told reporters at the scene. The residence is near the southeast corner of the park and the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside trail.
When they arrived, the officers found a man and a woman dead inside the home. They were identified Sunday by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office as Atlanta police officer Kevin Stroner, 56, and 44-year-old Moriah Cardona.
On Monday, the medical examiner’s office said Cardona’s manner of death was determined to be a homicide, and the officer died by suicide.
The medical examiner’s office said a handgun was used but declined to confirm any more details. Police previously said the two were the only ones in the home at the time of the incident, which they described as isolated. APD also said there is no threat to the community.
“This is a death investigation,” Spann added. “It is ongoing.”
Stroner owned the house, according to online county property records.
Stroner joined APD in 2011 and was promoted to investigator in 2017, according to Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council records. In 2012, he was praised by the department for stopping an armed robbery at a Family Dollar store on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in southwest Atlanta. He also helped to arrest a man accused of robbing a health care worker on Martin Street in 2020, police said.
“(Officers) are grieving,” Spann said. “But we do have employee assistance for them.”
—AJC data specialist Jennifer Peebles contributed to this article
Editor’s note: If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
