Seven Georgia police officers shot in less than two months

Two Georgia police officers were shot early Monday morning while serving a warrant in a drug-related case.

Atlanta's WXIA-TV reported that eight officers of a multi-jurisdiction drug task force knocked on the door of a Byron, Georgia, home around 2:10 a.m. Monday. The officers knocked on the door but no one answered. That's when they let themselves in.

"As they were going in, one of the occupants inside the house fired at least one round at the officers. I don't know if he fired more than one round," Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in charge J.T. Ricketson said.

Officers then returned fire on the shooter, killing him. Two officers were injured and taken to a hospital. One has since been released. Another was undergoing surgery on a "more serious injury to his upper arm and shoulder area." Neither of the officer's injuries were life-threatening.

The suspect's girlfriend and 1-month-old baby girl were also inside the home at the time of the shooting. Weapons from inside the home were collected by the drug task force, WXIA-TV reported.

"These officers were pretty shook up ... because the thing is this actually is only about 4.5 or 5 miles down the road from the scene we had a month ago where the two Peach County deputies were killed," Ricketson said, referring to the death of Sgt. Patrick Sondron being fatally shot near the scene last month and his partner, Del Smallwood, being critically injured, as WSB-TV reported.

As the Atlanta Journal Constitution pointed out, the two Byron officers bring to seven the total number of law enforcement officials who have been shot in the line of duty in less than two months.

Americus police Officer Nicholas Smarr and Georgia Southwestern State University Officer Jody Smith were fatally shot just last week. Peach County deputies Sgt. Patrick Sondron and Daryl Smallwood died as the result of a shooting in Byron on November 6, and U.S. Marshals Service and former deputy commander of the Southeast Regional Task Force, Officer Patrick Carothers, was shot and killed in Long County on Nov. 18.