The Spalding County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday details of the memorial service for Sgt. Marc McIntyre, who was killed when he was shot as he walked toward a house for a domestic disturbance call.
McIntyre, known to his colleagues as “Mac,” was hit by a shotgun blast last week outside a home on Deason Street near Griffin, according to the sheriff’s office. He and another deputy were responding to a domestic call and attempting to conduct a wellness check.
McIntyre’s memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at Griffin First Assembly of God at 2000 West McIntosh Road, the sheriff’s office announced. A procession of law enforcement vehicles will precede the service and depart from Atlanta Motor Speedway at 11:30 a.m. The speedway is about 10 miles north of the church on U.S. 41.
Todd Lamont Harper, 57, was the subject of the domestic call and the suspected shooter, the sheriff’s office said. After shots were fired, Harper barricaded himself inside the home and remained there during an hours-long standoff with officers from multiple law enforcement agencies. A SWAT unit eventually breached the home with an armored vehicle and took Harper into custody. He was booked into the Spalding jail and faces one count of murder, according to jail records.
At Friday’s news conference to share details of the fatal standoff, Sheriff Darrell Dix was visibly distraught over McIntyre’s death.
“He lit up a room when he walked in,” Dix said. “He was a deputy that definitely led by example.”
“I have an entire shift of deputies who worked with this supervisor who are absolutely devastated,” he said.
The deputy who was alongside McIntyre when he was shot was one of the sergeant’s subordinates, according to Dix.
“They had known each other a long time,” Dix said. “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.”
McIntyre was an experienced deputy who started with the Spalding sheriff’s office in 2015. He was a military veteran who had previously been deployed to Iraq.
Nir Maman, a reserve deputy in the sheriff’s office and a reservist in the Israeli Defense Force, was a friend of McIntyre’s.
“He was a true sheepdog whose life purpose was to be the bastion that stood between the innocent and evil,” Maman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from Israel.
Spalding State Court Judge Josh Thacker called McIntyre “a wonderful leader and human being.”
“Words cannot begin to express our gratitude to you for your exemplary service to the United States of America and your sacrifice you made today for Spalding County,” Thacker said. “It is always too soon to say goodbye. We will miss you so very, very much.”
According to the sheriff’s office, there will not be a graveside service at the request of McIntyre’s family. All attendees of the memorial will be dismissed from the church once the program concludes.
