Domestic Disturbance Ends With Self Inflicted Gunshot Death

At about 7:45pm last night (Wednesday, May 18), deputy sheriffs were dispatched to a private residence on Craigtown Road near Resaca in response to a report of a domestic violence incident. The responding officers determined that a man had been assaulted and a vehicle had been severely damaged by another man who’d fled the scene before the arrival of authorities. Deputies began an area search for the man believed to have initiated the assault and property damage. They subsequently found his vehicle, which had sustained substantial damage as well, near the Oostanaula River on remote farmland off Craigtown Road. Nearby, deputies found the man armed with a rifle. As deputies were on the steep riverbank attempting to convince the man to put aside his weapon, the man shot himself. EMS personnel, who’d been staged in the area, responded immediately but the man, identified as Phillip Lanier, age 53, of Calhoun, did not survive. The investigation of this incident is continuing by the Sheriff’s Office and the Coroner’s Office.