7 in custody, woman hospitalized after shootout

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A woman is in serious condition after police said she opened fire on an officer, as he tried to execute a search warrant.

Gwinnett County police said officers went to serve a drug search warrant at a house on 2400 block of Buford Dam Road in Buford around 6:30 a.m. Thursday.

Channel 2’s Tony Thomas obtained arrest warrants for Shelly McLendon, 37, for charges of aggravated assault and a weapons charge.

Records show she was standing on a bed inside the home and fired through a window as a SWAT team burst into the house.

“I heard a loud boom. It was louder than anything I have ever heard,” a neighbor told Thomas.

Residents along Buford Dam Road said the SWAT raid and gunfire startled them, but they had always suspected something was going on inside this house.

“Definitely concerns and definitely questions, cars and trucks go all hours of the night,” the neighbor said.

After a 10-month investigation, police burst in to the home, with McLendon as their main target.

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“The warrants both the search warrant and the arrest warrant were for high risk drug related charges,” Cpl. Michele Pihera of the Gwinnett County Police Department told Thomas.

But police said McLendon tried to attack first, firing shots at an officer guarding the side of the house.

A Georgie Bureau of Investigation agent Thursday afternoon wrote in a warrant, “Officer Huggins heard two pops and observed a female on the bed with a handgun pointed at him. Officer Huggins observed muzzle flashes from the weapon.”

Police said he was hit by shrapnel, but when he fired back, he hit McLendon at least three times.

“People were there for a short period of time then they took off, so it's kind of inevitable what's going on,” the neighbor told Thomas.

Gwinnett police rushed McLendon to the hospital and pulled seven more people out of the house for questioning.

Investigators have not said if they found any drugs in the house.

At last report from police, McLendon survived a surgery and remains in critical condition. There is no indication at this point anyone else has been charged in the incident.

Cox Media Group