Cherokee County Man Anatoli Valter Shot After Charging Officer With Sword

A Cherokee County deputy shot a man who charged at him with a samurai sword on Saturday.

The shooting happened late Christmas Eve after deputies were called to a home in the Westland Mills subdivision in Acworth. Neighbors said they heard 49-year-old Anatoli Valter fire roughly 50-60 shots at his home on Old Mill Place.

"When I looked out the front door gun smoke was just everywhere, and you could smell it," Dawn Gibson told Channel 2's Carl Willis.

That's when Gibson said she dialed 911 for help. Neighbors said they'd seen Valter firing an AK-47 assault rifle in the past. They also said that he had been seen carrying a samurai sword, the same kind of weapon deputies said he had when they approached his home.

"Contact was made with the suspect inside the home, and he was yielding a sword and went toward the deputy with that sword," said Cherokee County Lt. Jay Baker.

Gibson said she could hear the exchange.

"I heard him screaming, 'Put your hands where I can see them. Put your hands where I can see them. And he yelled that seven or eight times and after that, we heard a gunshot," she said.

That single gunshot landed.

Valter was taken to Kennestone Hospital in critical condition.

"You just never hear anything like that around here ever," said Gibson. "It was 12 o'clock on Christmas Eve. All the kids were asleep and it woke them up, it was so loud."

Angela Watkins said she was in bed when the commotion started.

"That's a little scary because, even I know you don't fire your weapon in the neighborhood because it can ricochet, come back and hit someone else," she said.

The deputy involved has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.