Georgia sheriff’s deputy shot and critically wounded while serving a search warrant

CARROLLTON, Ga. (AP) — A sheriff’s deputy is in critical condition after being shot Tuesday morning in west Georgia, authorities said.

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office said the deputy was shot while serving a Georgia Bureau of Investigation warrant in a neighborhood in Carrollton.

The deputy was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and was in “very critical condition,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Ashley Hulsey told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the scene.

“From what I understand, it was a bullet that struck him in the face,” she added.

The suspected shooter is dead, Hulsey said. Further details about the gunfire would have to come from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, she said.

Carrollton is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Atlanta.

“Please pray for the Deputy, his family, and our department,” the sheriff’s department said in a brief statement.

In a statement, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said “Marty, the girls, and I are praying for this Carroll County Sheriff’s Deputy, along with his family and the entire law enforcement community.”

“Yet again, we have been tragically reminded of the dangers men and women in uniform face on a daily basis for the public’s safety,” the governor said.

The shooting comes less than three days after Paulding County Deputy Brandon Cunningham, 30, was shot to death Saturday evening just north of Carroll County in the town of Hiram.