In the summer of 1999, Cobb County Police Sergeant Steve Matthew Reeves, 35, was killed while serving on a SWAT entry during a volatile domestic incident in a Marietta neighborhood. A 14-year department veteran and a U.S. Army National Guard veteran, Reeves was the fourth officer through the door when the gunman opened fire. He was struck by the blast and taken to a hospital, where he died shortly after midnight on July 23, 1999.

The incident began after an unprovoked assault by a man on his neighbor; an initial officer who arrived was shot with both a handgun and a shotgun and wounded in the arms, legs, and back. Officer Stephen Gilner pulled Sergeant Reeves out of the line of fire and then re-entered the house, and Gilner was also fatally shot. The standoff continued until the next morning, when the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team took over and the suspect, identified as Greg Smith, was shot and killed while attempting to escape through a rear bathroom window. Reeves was survived by his wife and two teenage sons.