A woman with cuts to her hands ran through a parking lot at a Marietta apartment complex Friday, screaming for help, after she said her partner had hurt her. Officers who responded to the call feared the couple's 3-year-old child was in danger inside, forced their way into the apartment, and found the child unharmed — but the man inside had already turned violent against himself, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to Atlanta News First, police were called to the Preserve at Terrell Mill Apartments off Terrell Mill Road in Cobb County after witnesses reported seeing the woman running through the parking lot and yelling for help. She told police her partner had hurt her, and officers observed cuts on her hands when they arrived.
Officers Forced Entry Fearing for Child's Safety
Fearing the couple's 3-year-old child could be in danger inside the apartment, officers forced their way in, the outlet's report notes. Once inside, they found the man had injured himself, and officers began tending to his wounds before he was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the child was not harmed in the incident. The suspect's identity had not been publicly released, according to the same account, and both the woman and the child were taken to the hospital for evaluation.
The complex sits along a stretch of Terrell Mill Road that has drawn scrutiny before. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution dangerous dwellings investigation found police responded to 148 crimes between 2017 and July 2023 at 1557 Terrell Mill Road, including a May 2021 homicide and 11 aggravated assaults. Just months ago, in April, officers responded to a separate violent encounter nearby on Terrell Mill Road near Brookview Drive, where an officer fired at a fleeing vehicle after a driver tried to run down police, as reported by East Cobb News.
How Georgia Law Treats Family Violence Cases
Domestic violence is not charged in Georgia as a standalone crime; instead, a family violence designation under the state's Family Violence Act can bring significant sentencing enhancements when family violence is the basis of a specific crime and allows courts to issue temporary protective orders, according to FindLaw. Under O.C.G.A. § 19-13-1, family violence covers felony offenses along with acts of battery, assault, stalking, and criminal trespass committed between current or former spouses, parents who share a child, or people living in the same household — criteria that could apply to the relationship described by police in this case.
The Cobb County Police Department's Major Crimes Unit includes a Crimes Against Persons Division with sub-units dedicated to investigating domestic violence, stalking, homicides, and crimes against children, per the Cobb County Courier. That specialized structure reflects the scale of the problem statewide: domestic violence-related murder-suicides in Georgia rose by 80% over a four-year period leading into 2025, according to Safer Georgia.
Local Resources for Survivors
Cobb County's state-certified domestic violence organization, LiveSafe Resources, operates a 24-hour crisis hotline at 770-427-3390 along with a 40-bed emergency shelter, according to the Cobb Collaborative.
The suspect's identity has not been publicly released, and it remains unclear whether prior domestic disturbance calls or protective orders were tied to the address. The Cobb County Medical Examiner's formal cause of death determination had not been announced as of Friday.
