A group of people broke into the Marshallville police chief's home and burned it down early Friday, a few hours after a man died in police custody, authorities said.
Police also broke up a crowd that had gathered downtown in the city of 1,300 as word spread about the man's death.
Clarence Walker, 48, died at a hospital after two Marshallville officers sprayed him with pepper spray Thursday night while he was resisting arrest on warrants for probation and parole violations, authorities said
About 1 a.m. Friday, several people broke into Police Chief Stephen Stewart's home and set it on fire, destroying it, said John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
No one was home at the time of the fire, Bankhead said, and investigators were determining whether the blaze was connected to the man's death. No arrests had been made Friday morning.
Marshallville is about 90 miles south of Atlanta.