Unknown assailant fatally shoots Georgia firefighter and his wife in their new home, leaves toddler unharmed

Police in Georgia found a firefighter and his wife murdered and their 2-year-old child unharmed in the family’s home they just moved into over the summer.

On Nov. 18 around 9:30 a.m. Cobb County police discovered Justin Hicks and his wife, Amber Hicks, both 31, fatally shot, WSB-TV reported.

Detectives believe someone broke into the couple’s home and murdered them the prior evening.

A neighbor, Hannah Mabrey, told WSB-TV she saw relatives of the victims arrive at the scene in the upscale Chestnut Hill neighborhood. "I run up the street, they’re freaking out and crying, and [an officer] brings the child out, holding him by his torso, runs him out, and the grandmother grabbed him, and the grandfather grabbed him, and they’re crying and freaking out saying, ‘Where’s my baby?’” she recalled.

“They were just really sweet people, so I just can’t imagine who did this to them,” she said of the two victims. “It’s terrible.”

Cherokee County Fire Chief Tim Prather said Hicks, a six-year veteran of the crew, “had always been recognized as a happy, funny, loved-by-many kind of guy” who “was always a highly motivated, energetic individual who deeply loved his job as a firefighter and consistently worked to do better and be better every day.”

According to Prather, Hicks was “really thrilled” after recently completing his paramedic program training

“Justin has touched and impacted many lives, and he will be dearly missed,” the fire chief noted, adding, “Our hearts are broken as we mourn the loss of a member of our family and his lovely wife.”

Police have not identified a motive for the double homicide as the search continues for one or more unknown assailant in the ongoing investigation.

Anyone with information about the murders is asked to call Cobb County police at (770) 499-3945 or email cobbpolicecrimetips@cobbcounty.org.