On May 6, 2017, 30-year-old Patrick Lance Wooten was found dead of a gunshot wound to the chest inside a residence on Hood Avenue in Chickamauga, Georgia. Officers responding to a 911 call just before noon discovered Lance Wooten deceased at the scene, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called to lead the death investigation.

Investigators arrested the victim’s father, 58-year-old Pat Wooten, who was employed as a detention officer for the Walker County Sheriff’s Office and had previously served as a Chickamauga police officer. He was charged with malice murder and booked into the Catoosa County Jail without bond; the Walker County Sheriff’s Office placed him on administrative leave without pay.

Reports note a history of conflict between father and son and say an argument possibly connected to a recent arrest of Lance Wooten for simple battery and family violence may have escalated before the shooting. Anyone with information about the events on Hood Avenue that morning is asked to come forward.