Georgia · Bartow County · Officer-Involved

Grassdale Suites Shooting, Cartersville GA: Marcus Maurice Williams Killed by Bartow County Deputy After Gun Pulled at McDonald's

A call about a man pointing a gun at a McDonald's employee ended in gunfire in the courtyard of the extended-stay motel next door. The GBI has now named the man who died, and has taken over the investigation.

What happened at the Grassdale Suites in Cartersville?

A man was shot by a Bartow County sheriff's deputy in Cartersville early Tuesday and later died at a hospital. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has the case.

According to the GBI's press release, deputies were dispatched about 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2026 to the McDonald's at 1370 Joe Frank Harris Parkway SE in Cartersville, after a report of a man pointing a gun at a McDonald's employee.

A deputy found the man in a nearby parking lot, still holding a gun, the GBI said.

WSB-TV placed the gunfire more precisely: Bullets were flying in the courtyard of the extended stay motel around 6:45 a.m., the station reported, identifying the motel as the Grassdale Suites. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that police tape was placed around the nearby Grassdale Suites, located right next to the McDonald's.

The GBI says the man was taken to an area hospital, where he later died. No deputies were injured during the incident, the GBI said — an account that witnesses on scene dispute.

Who was Marcus Maurice Williams?

The GBI identified the man who died as Marcus Maurice Williams, age 31, of Cartersville, GA.

That is the whole of what any agency has released about him. No agency has published his occupation, his family, whether he was staying at the Grassdale Suites, or whether he had any prior contact with the Bartow County Sheriff's Office.

The same identification appeared in Atlanta News First — The deputy wasn't injured, while the suspect, 31-year-old Marcus Maurice Williams, died — and in FOX 5 Atlanta, which reported that investigators said 31-year-old Marcus Maurice Williams died after shooting at a deputy in a parking lot. Cartersville's own Daily Tribune News carried the GBI's identification word for word.

Williams is dead and cannot answer what the GBI has said he did. Everything on this page describing his actions is the GBI's preliminary account, attributed to the GBI, and it has not been tested anywhere.

Marcus or Markus: how we settled the spelling

The spelling is not uniform across Georgia outlets, and getting it wrong in a story like this is not a small thing. So here is exactly what each source we read published.

We use Marcus. The GBI is the agency conducting the investigation and the agency that issued the identification, and every outlet that took the name from the release spells it that way. The single Markus spelling appears in one radio-station write-up and is noted here rather than buried.

If the GBI or the Bartow County Coroner's Office later corrects the spelling, we will change it on this page and say so in the update log.

Where is the Grassdale Suites, and where is the McDonald's?

The Grassdale Suites is an extended-stay motel in Cartersville, on the southeast side of town. FOX 5 Atlanta described it as sitting right next to the McDonald's at 1370 Joe Frank Harris Parkway SE, the address the GBI gave for the original call.

That adjacency is the whole geography of this case. The call came from the restaurant. The shooting happened next door. Anyone who was in the drive-thru line, in the motel parking lot, or in a room facing the courtyard was within a few dozen yards of it.

What the GBI says the deputy did

The GBI's release gives a short preliminary sequence. In the bureau's words, the deputy gave Williams verbal commands, Williams refused to comply, Williams then pointed the gun and shot at the deputy, and the deputy returned fire, shooting Williams.

Two cautions belong with that paragraph.

First, the GBI labels it preliminary information. Preliminary accounts in officer-involved shootings are routinely revised once video, ballistics and interviews are in.

Second, it is an account of a dead man's conduct given by the agency reviewing the shooting. Williams cannot dispute it, and no court, grand jury or district attorney has evaluated it.

A witness account collected by FOX 5 Atlanta broadly tracks the GBI sequence — the witness said the officer told the man to put his hands up before the two exchanged shots — but a witness impression and an investigative finding are not the same thing.

No agency has said how many shots the deputy fired, or how many Williams fired, if any.

Was the Bartow County deputy shot? Two accounts.

This is the one open conflict in the coverage, and both sides of it are published here because neither has been resolved.

The GBI statement is the official one and it is unambiguous. But witnesses who watched a deputy be driven away from a shooting scene are not nothing, and a vest strike is exactly the kind of event that can be described as an injury by a bystander and as no injury by an agency. We are not resolving it for you. When the GBI or the sheriff's office addresses it directly, this section changes.

What investigators were seen doing in the courtyard

Two named outlets described the scene itself, and they described different pieces of it.

Atlanta News First reported that nearly a dozen evidence markers surrounded a Bartow County sheriff's patrol vehicle that had a bullet hole in the driver's side door.

WSB-TV reported that investigators with the GBI collected shell casings and other evidence on Tuesday in the courtyard of the Grassdale Suites.

What that adds up to publicly: a marked-off scene, a struck patrol car, and physical evidence being recovered. It does not establish who fired first, from where, or how many rounds were fired — and nobody has released a diagram, a body-camera clip or a ballistics finding.

Where Williams died, and why early reports differed

Williams died at a hospital, not at the scene. The GBI says he was taken to an area hospital, where he later died. Atlanta News First reported the same.

Early Tuesday coverage was less clear, because the death was confirmed before the location was. Bartow County Coroner Joel Guyton confirmed the man had died in an afternoon update to WSB-TV, at a point when no agency had yet released a name or said where he was pronounced.

If you saw a first-day report saying the man died at the scene, that is why. The GBI release is the later and more authoritative account.

Why is the GBI investigating a Bartow County deputy?

Because the sheriff's office asked it to. The GBI release opens by saying its agents are investigating at the request of the Bartow County Sheriff's Office.

That request is the norm in Georgia, not an admission of anything. Handing the file to an outside agency is how a department avoids investigating its own deputy, and it is why the sheriff's office has said comparatively little since Tuesday morning.

It also means the sheriff's office is not the place to ask what happened. The GBI is.

Which GBI office has the case

Bartow County is covered by the GBI Region 1 Investigative Office in Calhoun, listed at 1 McDaniel Station Rd SW, Calhoun, GA 30701, phone (706) 624-1424.

Region 1 covers 12 northwest Georgia counties: Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Haralson, Murray, Paulding, Polk, Walker and Whitfield.

How a GBI officer-involved shooting investigation works

The public rhythm of these cases is predictable, and knowing it saves families a great deal of refreshing.

Stages 1, 5 and 6 follow the GBI's own stated process in its Aug. 11 release. The intervening timings are typical of Georgia officer-involved shooting cases and are not promised in this one.

Who decides whether the shooting was justified

Not the GBI. The bureau's release says it will conduct an independent investigation, and that once complete, the case file will be given to the Cherokee Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office for review.

Bartow County sits in the Cherokee Judicial Circuit. That prosecutor's office is where the decision about the deputy's conduct will be made, and it is the office whose eventual announcement will make the investigative file public.

How often does the GBI investigate shootings like this?

Often enough that the agency keeps a public running log of every case.

The GBI investigated 112 officer-involved shootings in 2022 and 102 in 2023, of which 48 were fatal. Its published logs list 85 cases in 2024 and 83 in 2025. The 2026 log listed 50 cases through July 27, 2026.

Sources: the GBI's published 2026 and 2025 officer-involved shooting logs, and GBI year-end figures for 2022 and 2023 as reported by WUGA. The 2026 bar is a partial year and is not comparable to the full years beside it.

The other two Bartow County cases in 2026

Tuesday's shooting is not this county's first of the year. The GBI's own 2026 log lists two earlier Bartow County entries, both fatal.

By the GBI's public record, this is the third officer-involved shooting in Bartow County the bureau has been asked to investigate in 2026, and the second involving the sheriff's office specifically. Each remains a separate case; nothing in the GBI's material connects them.

What Georgia open records law will and will not give you

Families and neighbors ask, reasonably, whether they can simply request the body-camera video or the incident report. The short answer for now is no, and it is worth knowing why.

Georgia's Open Records Act, at O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72, is the section listing when public disclosure is not required. It is the provision agencies rely on to withhold records tied to a pending law enforcement investigation or prosecution. While the GBI file is open and the district attorney has not acted, that is the usual answer to a request for the investigative material.

A separate section, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71, governs the right of access, response timing and fees. It is the one that lets an agency charge for search, retrieval, redaction and copying, requires notice within three business days when the estimated cost will exceed $25, and allows an agency to require prepayment when the estimate tops $500.

In plain terms: you have a right to ask, the agency has a deadline to answer, it may charge you, and it may still lawfully decline while the case is open. Requests generally become productive after the district attorney announces a decision.

What we don't know yet

This page will be updated as the GBI, the Bartow County Sheriff's Office and the Cherokee Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office release more.

If you saw it happen

The GBI builds these cases largely out of witness accounts and video, and the Grassdale Suites courtyard had both Tuesday morning.

If you were at the McDonald's, in the drive-thru line, or staying at the motel, investigators want to hear from you directly. Bartow County is served by the GBI Region 1 Investigative Office in Calhoun, listed at (706) 624-1424.

Two practical notes. Attention: posting your phone video publicly before investigators have it can complicate its use later — give it to them first. And if you are a witness who is uncomfortable speaking to local deputies about a local deputy, you are entitled to contact the GBI directly instead. That is the entire reason the case was handed to them.

Frequently asked questions

Who was killed in the Grassdale Suites shooting in Cartersville?
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation identified him as Marcus Maurice Williams, age 31, of Cartersville, GA. Atlanta News First, FOX 5 Atlanta and the Daily Tribune News in Cartersville published the same name.

Is his name spelled Marcus or Markus?
The GBI, which is conducting the investigation and released the name, spells it Marcus Maurice Williams. Atlanta News First, FOX 5 Atlanta and the Daily Tribune News use the same spelling. One outlet, WRGA in Rome, spells it Markus. We use the GBI spelling because the GBI is the agency that issued the identification, and we note the difference rather than hide it.

Where did the Cartersville deputy-involved shooting happen?
The call came from the McDonald's at 1370 Joe Frank Harris Parkway SE in Cartersville. The GBI says the deputy found the man in a nearby parking lot. WSB-TV reported the gunfire happened in the courtyard of the Grassdale Suites, an extended-stay motel. FOX 5 Atlanta reported police tape was placed around the Grassdale Suites, which it described as located right next to the McDonald's.

What time did the shooting happen?
The GBI says deputies were dispatched about 6:30 a.m. on August 11, 2026. WSB-TV reported the gunfire in the motel courtyard happened around 6:45 a.m.

Did Marcus Maurice Williams shoot at the deputy?
That is the GBI account, and it is preliminary. The GBI says the deputy gave Williams verbal commands, Williams refused to comply, Williams then pointed the gun and shot at the deputy, and the deputy returned fire. Williams died and cannot answer that account. No independent finding has been made, and the GBI has not said how many shots were fired by anyone.

Was the Bartow County deputy shot?
The accounts do not agree. The GBI says no deputies were injured during the incident, and Atlanta News First reported that statement as coming from the GBI. WSB-TV reported that the sheriff's office had not confirmed whether its deputy was shot, and that witnesses told the station they think he was hit in the shoulder or vest and that a fellow deputy drove him to the hospital. The GBI statement is the official one; the witness accounts have not been confirmed by any agency.

Where did Marcus Maurice Williams die?
At a hospital, not at the scene. The GBI says Williams was taken to an area hospital, where he later died. Atlanta News First reported the same. Bartow County Coroner Joel Guyton confirmed the death to WSB-TV in an afternoon update.

Why is the GBI investigating instead of the Bartow County Sheriff's Office?
Because the sheriff's office asked it to. The GBI release opens by saying its agents are investigating at the request of the Bartow County Sheriff's Office. Georgia agencies routinely hand off any shooting involving one of their own officers so the inquiry is independent.

Which GBI office is handling the Cartersville investigation?
Bartow County is covered by the GBI Region 1 Investigative Office at 1 McDaniel Station Rd SW, Calhoun, GA 30701, listed at (706) 624-1424. Region 1 covers 12 counties: Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Haralson, Murray, Paulding, Polk, Walker and Whitfield.

Which district attorney will review the case?
The GBI says it will conduct an independent investigation and that once complete, the case file will be given to the Cherokee Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office for review. The GBI does not decide whether a shooting was justified.

Has anyone been charged in the Cartersville deputy-involved shooting?
No. No charges have been announced against anyone. Marcus Maurice Williams died without being charged, so the allegations described by the GBI were never tested in court. No finding has been made about the deputy's actions either. Anyone accused of a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Is the deputy on administrative leave?
The Bartow County Sheriff's Office has not said publicly, and the deputy has not been named. Administrative leave is common practice in Georgia while a GBI review is pending, but it has not been confirmed in this case.

How many officer-involved shootings does the GBI investigate each year?
The GBI investigated 112 in 2022 and 102 in 2023, of which 48 were fatal. Its published logs list 85 cases in 2024 and 83 in 2025. The 2026 log listed 50 cases through July 27, 2026.

Have there been other officer-involved shootings in Bartow County in 2026?
Yes, two others in the GBI's own 2026 log. One on March 18, 2026 at a Days Inn motel in Cartersville involving the Bartow County Sheriff's Office, in which the GBI log names Justin Eric Hardin, 45. One on April 23, 2026 involving Adairsville Police, in which the log names Saeed Ahmed Reed, 26. Both are listed as fatal.

When will the GBI release its findings?
There is no fixed deadline. GBI officer-involved shooting investigations commonly take months, and the findings usually become public only when the district attorney announces a decision.

How do I report what I saw at the Grassdale Suites?
Contact the GBI Region 1 Investigative Office in Calhoun at (706) 624-1424. Give investigators your phone video before posting it publicly.

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