A US police officer was killed and two sheriff's deputies were seriously wounded in a shooting that also left a suspect dead near Atlanta, Georgia, authorities say.
The incident happened as the officers were serving an arrest warrant around 11 am local time at a home in Locust Grove, about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Atlanta, Henry County Sheriff Keith McBrayer said Friday.
"It all happened inside the residence," the sheriff said at a news conference. "Trying to make an arrest, there was an altercation."
He said they had no reason to believe when they arrived that the suspect would be violent.
The fallen officer was identified as 26-year-old Chase Maddox, who had been with the department for about five years. The two Henry County sheriff's deputies were in serious condition and undergoing surgery.
A total of 143 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2016, the highest number in the past five years.
The number also marked a 10-percent increase from 2015, according to data by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF).
The police association found that 64 officers were killed in firearm-related incidents, a 56 percent increase over 2015.
“We've never seen a year in my memory when we've had an increase of this magnitude in officer shooting deaths,” said Craig Floyd, president of NLEOMF.
Anti-police sentiment in the US has risen sharply in recent years as a result of police violence and several high-profile shooting deaths of unarmed African American men.
National figures on the number of Americans shot and killed by police are not compiled by any government agency. According to The Washington Post, nearly 1,000 people were shot and killed by police in 2016.
Source: Press TV
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