Authorities charge brother with Christmas Day murder

FLOWERY BRANCH - A man has been charged with murder after his brother was shot to death at a home in Flowery Branch on Christmas morning.

Hall County authorities have identified the dead man as Alan Scott Fyfe, 54. His brother Mark Alan Fyfe, 52, has been charged with murder in the shooting death.

Hall County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Mitchell said Mark Alan Fyfe also faces charges of obstructing an officer (three counts) and one count of interfering with government property. The lesser charges stem from a SWAT standoff that occurred outside the River Hill Road home.

Mitchell said the incident unfolded just before 9:30 a.m. Christmas Day when deputies responded to a 911 call from the residence on River Hill Road. When deputies arrived, Mark Fyfe told them another person inside the house had made the emergency call. The caller, according to Mitchell, turned out to be Mark Fyfe's son 21-year-old Kevin Fyfe.

Mitchell said the elder Fyfe closed the door and refused to allow the deputies to enter the house.

When deputies searched outside the residence, they found a male subject, later identified as Alan Scott Fyfe, lying in the backyard with what appeared to be a gunshot wound.

At that point, Mitchell said the Hall County SWAT team was called. After negotiating with Fyfe, he and his son, Kevin, came out of the house. No one else was injured.

Alan Scott Fyfe was taken to the Northeast Georgia Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Mitchell said Kevin Fyfe was interviewed by authorities and released without being charged, but Mark Fyfe is being held in the Hall County Jail without bond.