Florida man, one of two sheriff’s deputies, killed in Atlanta shooting earlier this week

The County of Cobb in Georgia — A man who was born and raised in South Florida has been identified as one of the two sheriff’s officers who were slain in a gunfight on Thursday night in a suburb of Atlanta.

Both Jon Koleski, age 42, and Marshall Ervin, age 38, were pronounced dead at the scene of a firefight in Marietta at approximately 7:50 p.m., according to the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office.

In 1998, Koleski received his diploma from Western High School, which was located in Davie. His mother is still residing in Sunrise at this time.

Melissa Marchetti, who is Koleski’s younger sister, stated that it feels extremely real but also surreal at the same time because there is a part of her that doesn’t want to believe that it’s genuine. “I simply feel like a huge hole. It’s almost as if there’s a hole in the world that will never be filled.

Christopher Golden has been taken into custody by the authorities, and he is being charged with three counts of felony murder as well as three charges of aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer.

The initial purpose of Koleski and Ervin’s visit to the residence was to serve a warrant on Christopher Cook, who was wanted for felony larceny.

Marchetti added that as the officers were walking back to their cruiser, the suspect’s vehicle drove up beside them and ambushed them.

At a news conference held on Friday afternoon, the Chief of Police for Cobb County, Stuart VanHoozer, expressed his “inexpressible sympathies” to the families of the two heroes who had sacrificed their lives in this town the previous evening. We are thinking about the families, friends, and coworkers of the cops during this difficult time.

Before joining the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office, Koleski was a soldier in the United States Army who had done three tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. He had been employed by the county as a deputy for the previous 15 years.

The funeral for Koleski is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, and members of his family from South Florida intend to fly to Georgia to be with his wife, Amy.

According to Marchetti, “Things like this happen in the movies, and you hear it in the news, but you don’t imagine that it’s going to happen to you.”

A crowdsourcing effort to provide financial assistance to the officers’ families has been launched by the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office. A GoFundMe page has also been established by members of the Koleski family. The following is a list of those links: