COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Cobb County's first Black sheriff, Craig Owens, will be sworn in this afternoon.
Owens was elected to the position in November, part of a wave of Democratic wins over incumbent Republicans that signaled a seismic shift in the county's politics.
An Army veteran, Owens ran on his experience as a command sergeant major in the Army Reserve. According to his bio, he led a division of 14,000 personnel across 34 states and managed a budget of $51 million in the position.
The Atlanta native and Austell resident defeated Republican Neil Warren, who had been under fire following the deaths of at least two people at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center over the past few years.
11Alive had previously filed a lawsuit against Warren in September. The lawsuit claimed that the sheriff violated the Georgia Open Records Act by withholding public documents related to inmate deaths by manufacturing a bogus investigation to conceal records.