SPALDING COUNTY, Ga. — A Spalding County sheriff's deputy is dead after being shot and killed while responding to a domestic disturbance and welfare check call on Friday, according to the office.
Around 11 p.m. on Friday, he was identified as Sgt. Marc McIntyre. According to Spalding County Sheriff Darrell Dix, he worked for the office for around 12 years.
McIntyre started working as a detention officer at the Spalding County Sheriff's Office in 2015. Two years later, in 2017, he was sworn in as a uniformed patrol deputy.
Dix said he worked his way up through SWAT and became a shift supervisor before the attack on December 29. McIntyre was shot in the head, while another deputy was forced to take cover and returned fire. Additional responding officers were able to retrieve McIntyre and get him transported for emergency medical care; he later died of a critical injury to his head.
"I have an entire shift of deputies who work with this supervisor who are absolutely devastated," Sheriff Dix said.
He added that McIntyre was friendly and that "every time you saw him, he was smiling."
McIntyre was a combat veteran, and Dix said he believed the deputy had served in the Army in Iraq, adding that he "definitely led by example."
"He would call your name across the parking lot just to say hey to you," Dix said. "He lit up a room when he walked in; he had a command presence about him, and the people that worked with him on his shift, they loved him."
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A vigil for McIntyre is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Saturday at the sheriff's office on 401 Justice Blvd. People are expected to walk across the street, light candles, and say prayers.
MORE ABOUT THE CASE
Two deputies responded to a 911 call reporting a domestic incident at a home in Griffin. When they arrived and crossed the yard, deputies said, Todd Harper, a 57-year-old military veteran, fired at them from a window with a shotgun.
Sgt. Marc McIntyre was shot in the head and later died from the critical injury, while the second deputy suffered a broken hand.
Dix said Harper's wife had called 911, reporting that he had threatened her, leading to the confrontation. Deputies had been to Harper's house multiple times before, including a previous incident in January 2021 where he barricaded himself but didn't fire shots, adding that he had a history of mental health struggles.