Georgia man kills two-year-old son, self after day-long standoff with police

A 43-year-old man shot and killed his young son before taking his own life in an Atlanta-area home on Wednesday, ending a nearly day-long standoff with police, authorities said.

Police were called to the home in Gwinnett County late on Tuesday to investigate a report of a domestic dispute. Inside, a man identified as Thy Anh Ho was holding his two-year-old son hostage at gunpoint, police said.

SWAT teams descended on the home, and after a 19-hour standoff with Ho, gunshots rang out, Corporal Deon Washington, a spokesman for Gwinnett County police, said during a news conference.

"All of the gunshots were fired before the police entered the actual room where the suspects were. No law enforcement personnel fired any shots during this whole incident," Washington said.

The boy was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, authorities said. Ho died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

The boy's mother told media Ho had also threatened her and her teenage son but they escaped from the home. She told WXIA-TV her young son was "so smart."

Ho had served about four months in a Georgia prison in 2012 for theft, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Robert Birsel)