Georgia Man Charged with Double Homicide in Killing of Two Deputies Serving an Arrest Warrant

From the AP . . .

Authorities charged a person with homicide Friday within the killing of two sheriff’s deputies serving an arrest warrant on one other individual outdoors a suburban dwelling close to Atlanta.

Cobb County Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer instructed reporters at a information convention that the deputies had been making an attempt to arrest a person wished on theft prices within the driveway of his dwelling Thursday evening when one other man inside confronted them with a gun.

A shootout ensued when the armed man refused instructions to drop his weapon, VanHoozer mentioned, and each deputies had been fatally wounded. The capturing suspect and the person with the excellent warrant had been each arrested following a standoff with officers who swarmed the neighborhood.

The 2 slain deputies had been recognized Friday as 42-year-old Jonathan Koleski and 38-year-old Marshall Ervin.

“They had been excellent males, males of character and integrity, household males beloved by their households and their youngsters,” Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens instructed a information convention.

Each males arrested on the scene made preliminary court docket appearances Friday afternoon.

Christopher Golden, 30, was charged with two counts of felony homicide and two counts of aggravated assault towards regulation enforcement officers. Christopher Cook dinner, 32, wasn’t charged within the killings. However he was booked on six excellent theft prices.

Each males had been denied bond. It was not instantly recognized if that they had attorneys.

VanHoozer declined to present specifics of what occurred in the course of the standoff that ended with the 2 males arrested, the house’s entrance door out of its body and home windows damaged. He did say there was no extra gunfire after the deputies had been shot and no different officers had been injured.

The sheriff had beforehand instructed reporters his deputies had been “ambushed.” On Friday afternoon, he deferred questions concerning the shootings to the county police chief, whose company is conducting the investigation.

VanHoozer mentioned police had tried to be forthcoming with what they knew throughout an “unfolding investigation” through which they nonetheless had restricted info.

Requested if he would name the shootings an ambush, VanHoozer mentioned: “What I’ve simply given you might be details. I’m not going to label it.”