A deputy was killed while responding to a domestic dispute in northwestern Georgia on Saturday evening.
This is the first time the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office has lost a deputy in the line of duty, Maj. Ashley Henson said in a news conference Saturday.
Deputy Brandon Cunningham and another deputy responded to a home at around 6:13 p.m. regarding the dispute.
“Upon their arrival they were met with gunfire from a suspect who was inside a home,” said Henson, who called it an “ambush.”
Cunningham was struck and killed. The alleged gunman’s wife tried to leave in a vehicle immediately after Cunningham was shot, but the shooter struck her as well, the sheriff’s office said in a statement Sunday evening.
The woman was identified by the sheriff’s office as Kim Thao Vu, 52. She was stabilized at an Atlanta-area hospital, where she was in serious condition.
Deputies who wanted to render aid to Cunningham, including his partner, were thwarted by “the hail of gunfire that was being rained down upon them,” the sheriff’s office said in its statement.
The deputy didn’t have a chance to return fire, it said.
“Cunningham was shot as he exited his patrol vehicle, never even seeing the threat before being executed,” the office said.
Sheriff Gary Gulledge held back tears at Sunday’s news conference.
“Tonight, we’ve lost a hero,” he said. “Deputy Brandon Cunningham has succumbed to a gunshot wound at the emergency room over here at Paulding.”
He continued, “I ask that you please keep his family in your prayers, everybody — even if you’re not in this county, I ask that you pray for this family, both blood and blue. Everybody here is hurting, our whole staff is hurting.”
Cunningham began his career with the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office in 2020 and was in the uniformed patrol division for around two years, Henson said.
“He was a great deputy, good young man. He was 30 years of age,” Henson said. “Brandon leaves behind two children.”
The male suspect who allegedly fired the shots was found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Henson said. Officials did not identify the suspect.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will continue to investigate the incident.