A veteran deputy was shot in the head and killed Friday while responding to a disturbance at a home in Spalding County, authorities said.
Sheriff Darrell Dix said Sgt. Marc McIntyre was killed by a shotgun blast in front of a colleague while conducting a wellness check at the home of a 57-year-old man.
The deputy had been with the sheriff’s office since 2015 and was a military veteran who served in Iraq, Dix said. The sheriff was visibly distraught by McIntyre’s death.
“He lit up a room when he walked in,” Dix said during a news conference. “He was a deputy that definitely led by example.”
Todd Lamont Harper was taken into custody following an hourslong standoff at the residence on Deason Street off Vineyard Road just outside Griffin.
Law enforcement was initially called to the home regarding a domestic situation. As McIntyre and another deputy were walking across the yard, Harper began to shoot his shotgun from a window, Dix said.
McIntyre was shot in the head and immediately fell to the ground. Dix said the other deputy, who may have suffered a broken hand, returned fire and retreated without being able to carry McIntyre to safety.
“They had known each other a long time,” Dix said about the two deputies. “To see your supervisor get shot steps away from you, and seeing him lying on the ground and knowing that you can’t get to him because you’re taking gunfire is a horrible thing for anyone.”
Harper barricaded himself inside the home after shots were fired, officials said, and multiple agencies and SWAT members then responded to the scene. At that point, law enforcement was able to get McIntyre and he was taken to an Atlanta-area hospital, where he died around 2 p.m.
“The cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head,” Dix confirmed.
Credit: Spalding County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Spalding County Sheriff's Office
At some point during the standoff, law enforcement breached the back of the house after Harper refused to come out, Dix said.
“We ripped the whole back side of the house off using our armored vehicle and Clayton County’s armored vehicle. The suspect still would not surrender,” Dix said. “We saw him in the house multiple times and he kept getting away, running deeper and deeper. That’s why we ended up tearing half the house off.”
The suspect was eventually located lying under a mattress in a bedroom and Dix said he was given multiple opportunities to come out. Several law enforcement entered the home and were able to take him into custody.
“He was very combative at the time he was arrested. He had to be carried to the car,” Dix said. “Continued to tell us that he knew where all of us lived and that he was going to kill us all.”
Harper was injured during the incident but was not shot, according to officials.
He was taken to the Spalding jail. Authorities have not said what charges he is facing.
“He killed my deputy, he’s going to sit in my jail,” Dix said.
The Spalding County deputy, whose body was escorted to the GBI Crime Lab in DeKalb County, is the 121st across the country to die in the line of duty this year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks law enforcement deaths. At least 44 of those deaths have been the result of gunfire.
Within the Spalding sheriff’s office, McIntyre is the second to die in the line of duty during the past 18 months and the fourth in the agency’s history, according to the Officer Down page. In July 2022, a Spalding deputy died after a large tree fell on his vehicle, killing him instantly, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Former Sheriff James “Dee” Stewart died in July 2011 from injuries sustained in a crash and the agency lost two deputies in a December 1980 crash.
In Georgia, five officers have died this year in the line of duty, down from six in 2022. McIntyre is the only metro Atlanta officer to lose his life in the line of duty in 2023.
— Staff reporters Shaddi Abusaid and Alexis Stevens contributed to this story.
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