Cobb County police said the case began with concern for a woman at a Vandiver Drive home.
COBB COUNTY, GA — Two people were found dead Sunday inside an East Cobb home after a welfare check turned into a SWAT standoff involving gunfire, a police sniper and a man who authorities said later died by suicide.
The deaths ended a daylong police response on Vandiver Drive, near Rainwater Drive, after family members reported they had not heard from a woman believed to be inside the home. Cobb County police said the woman’s cause of death had not been released Sunday night. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the officer-involved shooting, while Cobb police are conducting a separate death investigation.
Police said officers went to the home in the 3100 block of Vandiver Drive around 8:30 a.m. Sunday for a welfare check. When they arrived, officers saw a man inside the residence but could not get him to come out or speak with them. Officer Aaron Wilson, a Cobb County police spokesman, said officers continued trying to contact the man while working to secure a search warrant. Shortly after 11 a.m., police said, a gunshot was heard from inside the home. The SWAT team was then called to the neighborhood as officers set up a larger perimeter around the residence.
Authorities said a police drone was used during the response and showed the man inside with a gun. Police said crisis negotiators and SWAT officers made repeated efforts to reach him by loudspeaker and other means, but he did not respond. “They tried to establish communication, and he refused every attempt that was made,” Wilson said. Investigators said the man later fired toward officers. A SWAT sniper returned fire and wounded him, police said. Officers said the man was still alive after he was shot and that efforts to communicate continued.
The standoff continued into the afternoon before police said the man took his own life around 4 p.m. Officers then entered the home and found two people dead inside. Police have not released the names of the man or woman. Officials said the original welfare check was for the woman, but they had not said Sunday night how long she had been dead or how she died. Police said the man and woman knew each other, though authorities had not confirmed the exact nature of their relationship in the first public updates.
No officers were reported injured. Police also said no one else inside the home was harmed during the incident. The scene drew a large law enforcement presence to the East Cobb neighborhood for several hours, with SWAT vehicles, marked patrol units and officers positioned near the home. Vandiver Drive sits in a residential area near Sandy Plains Road, Ebenezer Road and Rainwater Drive, where Sunday’s response disrupted a normally quiet stretch of homes as officers worked to contain the standoff.
Neighbors described hearing officers call out to the person inside and later hearing what sounded like gunfire. Dawn Anderson, who lives nearby, said she and her family moved to the basement after hearing shots. “We grabbed the grandchild and relocated to the basement and stayed there, sheltered in place until we got the all clear,” Anderson said. Another resident said the loudspeaker commands made clear that police were trying to get someone to leave the home, and neighbors came outside because the police activity was unusual for the area.
The GBI investigation is standard when an officer fires a weapon during a police call in Georgia. That review will focus on the officer-involved shooting, including the circumstances that led the SWAT sniper to fire. Cobb County police said their Major Crimes Unit will separately investigate the deaths inside the home. Those findings are expected to address the woman’s cause and manner of death, the man’s actions during the standoff and the sequence of events before officers entered the residence.
Police had not announced any charges by late Sunday because both people found inside the home were dead. Investigators also had not released a final timeline of all shots fired or said whether a firearm was recovered from the residence. Wilson said officers made repeated efforts to end the standoff without further harm before it turned deadly. The case remained active Sunday night, and authorities said more information would be released after next-of-kin notifications and further investigative work.
The home remained the center of a death investigation Sunday night. The next public milestone is expected to come from Cobb County police or the GBI after investigators complete initial reports and identify the two people found dead.
Author note: Last updated May 3, 2026.