A deputy was killed while responding to a domestic dispute in northwestern Georgia Saturday evening.
This is the first time the Paulding County Sheriff’s office has lost a deputy in the line of duty, Major Ashley Henson said in a news briefing 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.
“Tonight, we’ve lost a hero,” Sherif Gary Gulledge said while holding back tears at the briefing. “Deputy Brandon Cunningham has succumbed to a gunshot wound at the emergency room over here at Paulding.”
“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,” Gulledge said. “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 female victim from the domestic dispute call arrived back on scene while deputies were there and had also been shot. She was taken to an intensive care unit at an Atlanta hospital and is in stable condition, according to Henson, who added “that can change.”
The male suspect who allegedly fired the shots was found dead from what appears 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.
