Police kill man inside burning Georgia house; woman found dead, others rescued

LOCUST GROVE, Ga. — Police in a suburb southeast of Atlanta shot and killed a man inside a burning house early Thursday, discovering a woman dead with burns and rescuing three other people who had been locked in a bedroom, authorities said.

Officers responded to a report of a house fire with people trapped just before 3:40 a.m., Locust Grove Police Chief Derrick Austin said. Officers forced entry through a back door and encountered a man armed with a large knife. After attempts to persuade him to drop the weapon failed, officers shot and killed the man, Austin said.

After the shooting, officers found a woman in an upstairs bedroom who had sustained burns and was dead. It was not immediately clear whether her death resulted from the fire, the shooting or another cause, Austin said. In a second bedroom, officers located two other adults and a child who were locked inside; those three were escorted safely outside. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and no officers were reported injured.

Authorities have not released the names of those who died or confirmed whether the people involved were related. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has taken the lead in the inquiry into the officer-involved shooting, the agency said. The GBI customarily leads investigations of in-custody and officer-involved deaths in Georgia to provide an independent review.

The house is in Locust Grove, a town about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of downtown Atlanta. Officials said firefighters and police were on the scene early Thursday morning; additional details about the cause of the fire and the circumstances that led to the encounter with the armed man were not immediately available.

The investigation is ongoing. The Locust Grove Police Department and the GBI did not immediately provide additional information about the identities of the victims, the shot man’s motive or whether any arrests have been made in connection with the fire. A central aim of the GBI probe will be to establish a timeline of events and determine the sequence of actions that led to the shooting and the fatalities.

Local officials asked that media and residents direct inquiries to the GBI as the state agency continues the review. Further information is expected as investigators complete interviews, collect evidence and release findings.