2 police officers shot near Atlanta

ATLANTA — Two police officers were in serious condition after being wounded by gunfire in a neighborhood outside Atlanta, where a gunman remained barricaded inside a home, authorities said.

The two injured Henry County officers were being treated at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta Thursday afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Denise Simpson said. Both were in serious condition, Henry County police said in a statement.

Police said they were called to a neighborhood in Stockbridge about 10:45 a.m. Thursday on a “trouble unknown” call.

By Thursday afternoon, a barricaded gunman inside a home was keeping officers at bay, police said. Residents were asked to stay clear of the area as officers dealt with what police described as “a very fluid situation.”

Other details of the shooting weren’t immediately released, and it wasn’t known how the officers came under fire.

One of the wounded officers was flown by helicopter to the hospital in Atlanta, about 20 miles north of Stockbridge. Georgia’s state transportation department helped clear the northbound lanes of Interstate 75 as the other injured officer was driven to Grady.

Henry County has endured multiple shootings of police officers in the past two years.

In December, Henry County police Officer Michael Smith was shot at a dentist’s office and died of his wounds about three weeks later. Employees at the dentist’s office had called police about a man who had been acting erratically, and Smith was shot as he confronted the man.

In February 2018, Locust Grove police Officer Chase Maddox, 26, was shot in the head and killed in the Henry County town he patrolled. Two Henry County sheriff’s deputies were also wounded in that shooting as the three law officers tried to serve an arrest warrant at a home.