GBI: 2 deputies injured in SWAT standoff, suspect in early shooting dead

ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. - A shooting suspect is dead and two deputies were injured by gunfire as they attempted to help end an hours-long standoff in Rockdale County. Deputies said the standoff started after a double shooting which left one man dead and another injured just blocks away from the home.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been asked to look into the officer-involved shooting.

This all started around 12:50 p.m. when deputies were called to a shooting near Green and Hill streets. Deputies said they found two shooting victims at the scene. They were rushed to an area hospital, where one of the victims later died. The condition of the second victim was not immediately known.

Deputies were quickly able to identify a person of interest in the shooting, who now has been identified as 66-year-old Gerald Newton Allen.  That led them to a home along Hill Street.

Both deputies with the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Conyers Police Department arrived at the home to find a man barricaded inside. Authorities called in the SWAT team and a negotiator to try to coax the man out of the home and surrender peacefully.

Details surrounding the end of the standoff were not immediately available, but in the end, two officers were grazed by bullets and the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.

The injured deputies were rushed to Atlanta Medical Center in Atlanta where they were treated and released.

Investigators have not yet said what prompted the initial shooting and the names of the victims have not been released. The name of the shooter and deputies were also being withheld due to the early stages of the investigation.

Some residents were evacuated from the neighborhood because of the standoff. They have since been allowed back into their homes.