Bartow man killed by deputies was person of interest in mother’s fire death

A man fatally shot by deputies in Bartow County on Monday was a person of interest in his mother’s death from a suspicious fire on Thanksgiving, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Bartow deputies and the state fire marshal’s office were investigating the death of 69-year-old Lynda Miller and executed a search warrant around 5 p.m. Monday at a home in the 200 block of Ga. 20 Spur near Cartersville, the sheriff’s office said.

But Miller’s son, Dylan Burl Rice, 39, refused to leave the single-story home, located a stone’s throw from I-75, officials said. Law enforcement deployed flashbangs before Rice went out the backdoor holding a “pellet air rifle,” according to the GBI.

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Responding deputies used foam and pepper rounds on Rice. The GBI said the suspect then pointed the pellet gun toward the deputies, who shot and killed him.

No deputies were injured. Rice’s autopsy will be conducted by the state agency.

Four days earlier and roughly 2 miles away, fire crews were dispatched to a residential structure fire in the 5700 block of Ga. 20. After encountering heavy smoke and flames coming from the single-story, wood-frame house, Miller was found by responders and died from her injuries at the scene that night, according to Bartow County Fire and Emergency Services.

The blaze was later deemed suspicious, and after several interviews “contact was made with Rice, which led to an officer involved shooting,” the sheriff’s office said.

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Both the GBI and sheriff’s office declined to comment further.

“Both incidents remain under investigation in collaboration with our partners at Bartow County Fire and Emergency Services and the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office,” Bryce Rawson, a spokesperson for the Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire John King, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We will release additional information as it becomes available.”

The GBI will lead the investigation into the shooting. Once completed, the case will be given to the Cherokee Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review.

It marked the 75th officer-involved shooting investigated by the state agency this year. At the same time last year, that number stood at 81.

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