Cobb police say a welfare check led to gunfire and two deaths inside a Vandiver Drive home.
COBB COUNTY, Ga. — State investigators are reviewing a Cobb County police shooting after a welfare check turned into a deadly SWAT standoff Sunday at a home on Vandiver Drive in East Cobb.
The incident began when officers were sent to check on a woman whose family had not heard from her, police said. By the end of the response, officers had found the woman dead inside the home and said an armed man had died by suicide after refusing to surrender. Cobb County police said the man had been wounded by a police sniper after shots were fired toward officers.
Police arrived around 8:30 a.m. May 3 at a home in the 3100 block of Vandiver Drive, near Rainwater Drive. Officers saw a man moving inside the house, but he would not come to the door or speak with them. Police said the situation changed around 11 a.m., when a gunshot was heard from inside the residence. SWAT officers were then called to the neighborhood.
During the standoff, police said the man fired more shots toward officers. A police sniper shot and wounded him. Officer Aaron Wilson said negotiators repeatedly tried to make contact before and after the shooting. “The SWAT team was on scene,” Wilson said. “You heard through their loudspeaker. Numerous, numerous times, they had tried to establish communication, and he refused every attempt that was made.”
Authorities used a drone to look inside the home after the man was shot, police said. The drone showed he was still alive, but officers said he continued not to follow commands. Wilson said the man later killed himself. Officers then entered the house and found the woman dead. Police have not said how she died, and investigators have not released the names or ages of the man and woman.
The case now has two tracks. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is examining the officer-involved shooting, which is routine in Georgia when police gunfire wounds or kills someone. Cobb County police are separately investigating the deaths at the home. Officials have not said whether investigators recovered a weapon, whether any prior calls had been made to the address or whether anyone else was inside the residence during the standoff.
The standoff disrupted a normally quiet residential stretch of East Cobb for several hours. Neighbors watched officers move through the area and heard commands over a loudspeaker. One resident told FOX 5 Atlanta that people came outside because “we just don’t have this type of activity” in the neighborhood. Another resident said the bullhorn made him think officers were trying to persuade someone to leave the house.
Police have described the original call as a welfare check, not a report of a shooting. The first confirmed gunfire came after officers were already at the home, according to police. Investigators have not said whether the woman was the person officers had been asked to check on, though police said the call was tied to concern for a woman inside the residence.
No officers were reported injured. The next major step is the release of findings from the GBI and Cobb County police, though officials had not given a timeline for either investigation by Monday, May 4.
Author note: Last updated May 4, 2026.