Murder-Suicide in Athens

According to the Athens Banner-Herald, a man murdered the mother of his children Thursday afternoon then shot and killed himself when the sheriff tried to stop the car he was in.

Michael Dwight Wise, 25, waited in the parking lot of the Shoppes of South Athens for Kendra Borders to return from lunch, and shot her after she parked her truck, according to police.

Immediately after he killed Borders, Wise drove home and told his brother that he just shot someone at the shopping center. He said he was going to kill himself and ran into the woods with a handgun, according to police.

The brother called 911 at 2:01 p.m., and officers found Borders in the driver's seat of her Ford Explorer, dead from a single gunshot wound, police said.

Oglethorpe County Sheriff Mike Smith was in his car on Elberton Road when a black Mustang drove by, and he noticed the passenger had ducked down in the seat, according to Smith.

Smith followed the car onto Veribest Road, activated his car's emergency lights and siren and saw "all of a sudden one of the Mustang's windows blew out," he said.

The car, driven by Wise's cousin, stopped on Veribest Road, and the sheriff found Wise was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Smith said.

A dozen people have died in domestic murders this year, including three of the aggressors who then committed suicide:

► On Jan. 28, police said John David Latimer shot and killed his two sisters and his brother in their trailer at Hallmark Mobile Home Park in Eastern Clarke County. Latimer, 52, pleaded not guilty to 13 felonies in the deaths of Janice Carol Patterson, 57; Sara Kathleen Tatum, 61; and Thomas Garland Latimer, 50.

► On April 25, University of Georgia marketing professor George Zinkhan III shot and killed his wife, Marie Bruce, 47; Thomas Tanner, 40; and Ben Teague, 63, who tried to intervene, outside the Town & Gown Theatre on Grady Avenue. Zinkhan then committed suicide after digging a shallow grave for himself.

► On Aug. 18, Lisa Davenport was set on fire by boyfriend Phillip Scruggs in her apartment at Bethel Midtown Village, according to police. She died 11 days later and police charged Scruggs with murder.

► On Oct. 9, a young boy found the bodies of his parents in their home on Chardonay Street. Police said Harry Marable apparently shot his wife, Phyllis, then himself.

Our thoughts, as always, are with the victim's family.