CARROLL COUNTY, Ga. (WDNews) – A Georgia sheriff’s investigator who was shot and seriously injured during a confrontation with a child sex abuse suspect has died from his injuries, according to local officials.
Investigator Taylor Bristow of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office succumbed to his injuries after being hospitalized in critical condition, the department announced Friday in a Facebook post. Bristow had been rushed via life flight to an Atlanta hospital following the incident on Tuesday in Carrollton, Ga., approximately 50 miles west of Atlanta.
Authorities said Bristow was shot by Christopher Bly, 40, as Carroll County deputies and Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) personnel were serving a search warrant. The warrant was issued by the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit. According to the sheriff’s department, Bly retreated into his home after investigators knocked on the door, produced a handgun, and fired, striking both himself and Bristow. Bly was pronounced dead at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Agents reported finding and seizing “multiple electronic devices within the home which contained child sexual abuse material.”
“The grief we carry for the passing of one of our own is beyond words, but we are grateful to be part of a community whose overwhelming support and love is just as immeasurable,” the sheriff’s department stated.
On Saturday, a police escort transported Bristow’s remains from the GBI crime lab along Interstate 20 to a funeral home in Bremen, Ga.
Bristow’s death comes less than a week after another Georgia sheriff’s deputy, Brandon Cunningham of the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office, was killed in a shooting while responding to a domestic dispute call on August 17. Cunningham, 30, died at a hospital after being shot outside a home near the city of Hiram, Ga.
Press Release (UPI)
