Around the Region: Deputy Shoots Swordsman, Knife-Wielding Woman Attacks Officer and 27 Displaced by Apartment Fire

– Woodstock Patch

A Cherokee County sheriff’s deputy shot a man wielding a sword in the western part of the county Saturday night.

A report of shots being fired on Christmas Eve drew deputies to the 2700 block of Old Mill Place in the Acworth area, spokesman Lt. Jay Baker said. When the deputies arrived, they were confronted by the man with the sword.

The result: A deputy shot the man, critically wounding him.

Baker did not release details about the circumstances that led to the shooting.

– Marietta Patch

A officer fatally shot a woman at an apartment just outside the Marietta city limits Christmas morning.

The woman, Jameela Cecila Barnette, 53, answered a knock at a door at the in the 300 block of Penny Lane by charging out with a knife and a handgun, police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce said in a news release.

Barnette assaulted and injured the officer who had knocked on the door, Pierce said. The officer, whose name was not released, was treated for injuries to his arm at the apartment complex. Barnette died at the scene.

Barnette was indicted and arrested last month on federal charges related to mailing a package that was a hoax weapon of mass destruction.

– Smyrna-Vinings Patch

An apartment fire early Friday afternoon in Smyrna displaced a reported 27 people just two days before Christmas.

There were no injuries as a result of the fire that destroyed one building at the located at 1803 Davie Circle. It required as many as 30 firefighters to contain as they battled heavy smoke and flames.

“Right now the cause of the fire is still under investigation,’’ Cobb Fire Battalion Chief Mike Ellington told Patch at the scene. “We’re looking at the possibility of a cooking fire, but we don’t know that for sure.’’

According to the Cobb County fire department, the blaze started in a ground-floor apartment and seven of the eight apartments that were damaged had been occupied.