BYRON, Ga., Nov. 7 (UPI) — One officer was killed and another wounded in a gunfight while responding to a dispute between neighbors in Georgia.
Ralph Stanley Elrod opened fire on officers coming to find out why he aimed a gun at two neighbors on ATVs, shooting two officers before taking a bullet to the abdomen and being taken to a hospital for treatment.
“These guys came out here to help people,” said Agent J.T. Ricketson of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “That’s what’s troubling to me.”
Peach County Deputy Patrick Sondron and Deputy Daryl Smallwood responded to a report of people on an ATV and a motorcycle riding up and down the street in their neighborhood when they were confronted by Elrod with a shotgun.
The two men went home and called 911, speaking to the deputies when they got there. When the deputies pulled up in Elrod’s driveway to find out why he threatened the two men, Elrod opened fire on them.
Several law enforcement agencies responded when the two men called 911 a second time for help, with responding officers shooting Elrod in the abdomen.
Sondron was taken to the Peach County Medical Center and pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m., while Smallwood is in critical condition from gunshot wounds he sustained.
Elrod is being treated Navicent Health in Macon.
“This is a quiet little neighborhood,” one neighbor told The Macon Telegraph. “This is about the most peaceful place you can find. Nobody here can believe this has happened.”
