Peachtree City, Georgia: Police Chief On Leave After Accidentally Shooting Wife Twice

There is a lot of turmoil in Peachtree City, Georgia, in the new year, as the wife of the Peachtree City police chief was shot on Thursday morning. The problem here is that the woman was shot twice by her husband, and now he is on administrative leave while an investigation is conducted.

CBS 46 reported that at around 4:17 a.m. in the morning on January 1, officers were called to respond to a report of a person being shot. They arrived at a home in the 100 block of Autumn Leaf in Peachtree City, Georgia.

Upon arriving on the scene, they found the victim to be a 58-year-old female named Margaret McCollom, the wife of Peachtree City Police Chief William E. McCollom.

She was attended to on the scene and then transported to Atlanta Medical Center via helicopter. Margaret McCollom was said to be in critical condition at the hospital as of early Thursday afternoon.

According to WSBTV, the call to the police early in the morning came from Police Chief Margaret McCollom, and he said that he accidentally shot his wife, Margaret, at their home.

For now, Police Chief McCollom has been placed on administrative leave, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has taken over the investigation. It was the city manager of Peachtree City that placed McCollom on leave, and he will stay there until the investigation is completed and an internal review is done.

So far, the GBI has released very few details regarding the situation.

The GBI said it is unknown what the couple were doing in the moments leading up to the shooting, or how it even happened. Even though Police Chief McCollom said he accidentally shot his wife twice, it is still unknown where she was struck.

McCollom was named the police chief just this past October, after he had been interim police chief since the month of July.

Lt. Mark Brown, of the GBI, released a statement regarding McCollom being placed on administrative leave. The statement didn’t specifically mention him by name, but the city website does reveal who it is.

The police department of Peachtree City, Georgia, and the GBI have a joint press conference scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. They will be joined by the Fayette County District Attorney to address the situation and give further statements.

[Image via CBS 46]