Murder/Suicide in Tift County

WCTV reports:

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation issued a press release detailing their investigation on what they say is a murder suicide. They say that evidence indicates that Darrell Ward shot and killed James and Shirley Peters in their home late Sunday night.

He also shot his ex-wife, Kayla Peters, but she survived. Ward then shot himself in the chest. Relatives of the Peters' family say that Kayla divorced Ward two weeks ago.

"The cops they had the road blocked off from Mitchell Store down to 319, on both ends. They wouldn't let anybody down, wouldn't tell anyone anything, it wasn't until a couple hours afterwards that we found out what happened," said one of the Peters' neighbors, only wanting to be identified as Heather.

Relatives said that Kayla's condition was improving, and that they had informed her on Tuesday afternoon that her parents had been killed.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Peters family.

Gwinnett Man Charged in Wife's Strangling

The AJC reports:

A 70-year-old Gwinnett County man remained hospitalized Tuesday afternoon, a day after he strangled his wife and then tried to kill himself, police said.

Officers were dispatched to a home on Summerfield Way, in the Sycamore Crossing neighborhood of Bethesda School Road near Lawrenceville, around 4:30 p.m. Monday for a welfare check after the couple did not show up for a meeting, Cpl. Ed Ritter said Monday evening.

Inside the stucco ranch home, officers found 62-year-old Eva Blatt dead and her husband, Alex Blatt, in medical distress, Ritter said. Police declined to say how the man attempted to kill himself in the apparent homicide and attempted suicide.

Alex Blatt was transported to Gwinnett Medical Center, where he was in critical condition Monday night, Ritter said.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Blatt family.

Mass DV-Related Shotting in Norcross

A mass shooting at a Norcross, GA spa is now suspected to be DV-related. From CNN:

The shooting deaths of five people at a suburban Atlanta spa Tuesday night was a murder-suicide triggered by a domestic dispute, police said Wednesday.

A man shot himself to death after killing his two sisters and their husbands at the Su Jung Health Spa in Norcross, Georgia, according to a police statement.

The man had been asked to leave the business earlier in the day, but returned at 8:40 p.m. and began shooting with a semiautomatic pistol, police said.

The names of the dead, all in their early 50s to mid-60s, have not been made public.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families.

Clayton County Murder-Suicide

From 11 Alive News:

An 11-year-old boy coming home from school walked into a bloody scene where his parents had been killed.

Clayton County Police said the couple died in a murder-suicide. Their bodies were found in their Riverdale home Thursday afternoon.

According to a Clayton County Police officer, Edmond Martin, 33, shot his wife, Fitcha Martin, 31, and then turned the gun on himself.

The child called 911 after finding a large amount of blood inside the house, Clayton County Police spokeswoman Tina Daniel told the Clayton News Daily. She said the boy did not see his parents' bodies.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Martin family.

Attempted Wilcox County Murder-Suicide Leaves Shooter Dead

From NBC 41:

According to Investigator Thomas Stubbs with the Wilcox County Sheriff's Department, a woman was shot twice by her on again off again boyfriend Monday night. Authorities found her conscious in a home on Tippettville Road. Her boyfriend was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The victim was transported to the Medical Center of Central Georgia in stable condition where she is being treated for gunshot wounds to the neck and head.

Stubbs tells 41 NBC the couple had a a tumultous [sic] past. The victim was visiting her boyfriend since Christmas. Authorities are not releasing the name of the victim or shooter.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the woman's family.

Man Charged in Catoosa County Double-Homicide

From CBS News:

A 59-year-old man told his estranged wife and her mother "they'd be sorry" before he pulled a handgun from his coat pocket and fatally shot both women at a Georgia hospital while people watched in the waiting room, police said.


"He shot the mother-in-law-first and then shot his wife," Fort Oglethorpe Police Chief David Eubanks told The Associated Press in a phone interview on Saturday, a day after the shooting...

The slayings happened at Hutcheson Medical Center in north Georgia, about 10 miles from the Tennessee state line. Police identified the man accused of the shootings as James Benson, a security guard from nearby Chattanooga, Tennessee. Investigators say he drove to the police station and turned himself in shortly afterward.


Police say the suspect had been separated from his wife, 56-year-old Mary Benson of Rossville, Ga., and their marital problems apparently prompted the violence. She was killed alongside her mother, 76-year-old Charlotte Johnson of Chattanooga, as they visited a relative being treated in the hospital's intensive care unit.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Benson and Johnson families.

Murder-Suicide in Augusta

From the Augusta Chronicle:

According to Richmond County sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Carrier, an FPL Foods employee, identified as Emanuel Jordan, 21, fired several shots outside the security gates at the business about 1:15 p.m.

Jordan, who worked at the facility, killed his wife, Tia Jordan, 40, then turned the gun on himself, according to Chief Deputy Coroner Mark Bowen.

...

Jordan has previous Richmond County charges of family violence, simple battery and theft by receiving stolen property from 2008 and a charge of possession of cocaine from 2009, according to law enforcement.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Jordan family.

Possible Murder-Suicide in Columbus

Columbus, GA Police are investigating what they suspect to be a DV murder-suicide from Saturday night.

Ruby Grant, 21, and Freddie Dewayne Grant, 27, were found fatally shot about 7 p.m. inside their home at Huckleberry Hill Apartments, 4570 St. Marys Road. According to a police report, officers visited the complex to conduct “a welfare check” of the couple. One neighbor said officers were also looking for a little girl who had been spotted outside the apartments.

When police stepped inside the couple’s apartment, they found the bodies, authorities said.

“When they got there is when they found the victim,” Sgt. Matt Blackstock said. “When they investigated, they found the other victim.”

Reports indicate Freddie Grant shot his wife in the head in their bedroom around 6:45 p.m. He then shot himself in the head in the same room. There is no suicide note.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Grant family.

Alleged Murder -Suicide in Marietta

A Marietta couple was found dead yesterday in what police suspect was a murder-suicide.

That ongoing dispute ended when Mr. Wilbur Carl South, 28, shot his girlfriend, Ms. Maryellen Cano, 32, and then himself in their home on Springdale Drive, Marietta police spokesman Officer David Baldwin said.

But police said Thursday they weren’t sure when the couple died.

Officers found their bodies after Ms. Cano’s father reported her missing about 6 p.m. at the police department, Officer Baldwin said.

He told police he hadn’t heard from her in two days.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Cano family.

Clayton County - Possible Murder, Attempted Suicide

From the AJC:

Clayton County police spokesman John Schneller said a woman was dead and a man was taken to the hospital with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The shootings occurred at a house in the 2500 block of Daley Court in Morrow.

Neighbor Harry Toney said police told him the shootings were the result of a domestic dispute.

Toney said a woman, man and three children lived at the house and had lived there since around the first of the year.

Further details were not immediately available.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.

DV Homicide-Suicide in Kirkwood (Atl)

A murder-suicide in Kirkwood, a neighborhood in east Atlanta, leaves three dead.

Atlanta police say the killings of two men and a woman apparently stemmed from a dispute between the woman and her former boyfriend.

Police say the woman, 50-year-old Angela Pearson, was found dead in her home on Thursday along with her son, 24-year-old Darryl Pearson, and the ex-boyfriend, Charlie Woods.

Investigators say all three apparently died of gunshot wounds.

The AJC reports:

Nicole Pearson said her mother had broken up with Woods in June, and he had never been violent or abusive.

In the last few months, though, strange things started happening: A dog disappeared from the house; a family computer printer was sabotaged, and on Wednesday, someone put sugar in the gas tank of Pearson's car, the daughter said.

A family friend, Schquetta Hammond, said Woods was suspected because he had a key to the house. Hammond said she urged Angela Pearson to go to the police, but "she told me, ‘He's harmless,' and she was not going to call the police."

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Pearson family.

Sandy Springs Murder-Suicide

According to the AJC, a Sandy Springs man is suspected of killing his wife and then killing himself.

Irene Mickens arrived at the Sandy Springs apartment Tuesday night to tend to her daughter, who, according to her soon-to-be ex-husband, was seriously ill.

The five-year-old was not sick, it turns out. Jamal Mickens had taken the girl, along with the couple's 7-year-old son, to his sister's home in McDonough earlier that day before returning home to meet his wife.

Sometime between 6 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. Wednesday, the recent Emory University graduate shot his estranged spouse in the head before turning the gun on himself, Sandy Springs police spokesman Steve Rose said.

"He lured her there," said Donna Penn, a friend of Mickens' who was on the phone with her minutes before she arrived at the Hammond Drive apartment were the couple lived, though not together.

Their bodies were found by police called to scene by Irene Mickens' father, concerned for his daughter's safety. Officers found a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun next to 40-year-old Jamal Mickens' dead body.

There are a couple of interesting things about this story. First, the AJC is determined to sprinkle class markers throughout their article on this homicide-suicide, which took place in a wealthier section of North Fulton County. Jamal Mickens has a Master's Degree from Emory University. There is a photo of the police towing a BMW from the scene. Though we don't know why the AJC felt it necessary to include this information, it does remind us that domestic violence is not an issue limited by class, and that educated people in nice neighborhoods are also vulnerable to violence in the home.

In addition, because WRC offers supervised visitation and exchange services at Nia's Place, we pay particular attention to instances where men take the lives of their former partners during visitation or custody exchanges. Just because a woman has decided to end the relationship with her batterer, that does not mean that she will be safe. In fact, women who have children with their batterer, especially if they were married or if their partner legitimized the children in court, are forever tied to him. Judges are very gung-ho about giving rights to any fathers who want them, whether it is good for the children or not. In fact, men who batter are more likely to have visitation or joint custody, because they are more likely to ask for it since it guarantees their continued access to the child(ren)'s mother.

If you are a woman who is afraid of experiencing violence when meeting your child(ren)'s father to exchange the children, call one of our legal advocates at (404) 370-7670 to get more information on how to request supervised visitation or exchange and what resources are available in your area.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mickens family.

DV SWAT Stand-off in Gwinett

A Gwinett County man committed suicide after a 6-hour SWAT stand-off in Gwinett County.

The incident began with an argument between the man and his wife around midnight, Gwinnett police Cpl. Edwin Ritter said. He said the man threatened to harm himself.

“He told her that he was going to commit suicide. She threatened to leave. He said, ‘No, you’re not going to leave.’ He went and got a long gun,” Ritter told Channel 2’s Amanda Cook.

Ritter said the wife managed to escape with the couple’s teenage daughter and call 911.

When police arrived, they said, the man refused to come out, and they had to take precautions because he’s armed.

“We don't know the power of this gun," Ritter said.

The SWAT team was brought in and neighbors on either side of the house were evacuated. They were speaking to the man over the phone, but he refused to surrender. SWAT officers threw tear gas in the home and sent in a robot. Ritter said authorities would stay at the home as long as necessary.

“We want to make sure that this is going to be a peaceful resolution,” he said.

But, police said, SWAT stormed in after the robot showed the man lying very still. Around 6:30 a.m., they said he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Ritter's wife and daughter. We are very thankful that they were able to get out alive.

Murder-Suicide in Canton

The AJC is reporting and a Canton man murdered his girlfriend and son before turning the gun on himself.

Police responded to an apartment in the 3100 block of Ridge Road early Friday and found the bodies of Christopher E. Conley, 30; his 25-year-old girlfriend Minnie Carr; and their 4-year-old son, Casey Noah Conley, Det. Candy Worthy said.

The preliminary investigation indicates that all three suffered gunshot wounds, and the bodies are being sent to the GBI Crime Lab in Atlanta for autopsies, Worthy said. A carbine rifle, which appears to be the weapon used in the deaths, was in the room next to the bodies and will be tested, she said.

"It appears from the initial walk through that it was the male who shot them," Canton police Lt. German Rivas said.

...

He also said police had been called to the couple’s apartment once in the past. Last year, Conley, intoxicated, locked himself in the bathroom and threatened to commit suicide.

“He threatened to cut his throat, but when police arrived, he had passed out,” Rivas said.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Carr and Conley families.

Murder-Suicide in Appling County

According to the Baxley News Banner:

At approximately 12:10 p.m. on June 30 Appling Dispatch received a call from an employer asking that the Appling Sheriff’s Office check a residence at 2148 Oliff Thornton Road in Southeast Appling County to check on an employee that had not showed up for work, which was unusual for her. When the deputy arrived at the scene, the back door of the residence was open and when he went inside he saw two bodies that were apparently DOA.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called to assist in the investigation. The Appling County Coroner pronounced both subjects dead at the scene.

One has been identified as Calvin Willis Wright, age 60. The other has been identified as Maxine Wright, age 56. The Wrights were husband and wife. Preliminary investigation indicates that Mr. Wright shot Mrs. Wright and then shot himself.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Wright family.

Father, Son Deaths Called Murder Suicide

The deaths of a Murray County, Georgia man and his son have been ruled a murder-suicide. The Dalton Daily-Citizen reports:

Murray County Sheriff Howard Ensley said investigators found a hose connected to the exhaust pipe that was run into the interior of the 1984 Corvette where he discovered the bodies of David Wayne Graham, 39, and his son, Easton Blayde Graham, 3, early Tuesday morning.

The article makes no mention of the child's mother. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Graham family.

DV Murder in Cobb County

According to the AJC, a Cobb County man stands accused of killing his wife and then setting their home on fire.

Cobb County fire Lt. Denell Boyd told the AJC that the fire call came in at 3:05 a.m. Monday, and when firefighters arrived five minutes later, they found the brick ranch house, in the 3500 block of Ponderosa Lane off Powder Springs Road, fully involved in flames.

Later Monday, investigators searched for Michael Rowe, who was located just before 2:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Walmart store on the East-West Connector near Powder Springs, Officer Kathryn Raines said.

Raines said Rowe was spotted by officers in the parking lot, in the 1995 Ford Taurus that police had issued a lookout for on Monday.

Raines said that Rowe put up no resistance, and was answering questions from detectives investigating the death of his wife. At 3 p.m. Tuesday, Michael Rowe was arrested at the Powder Springs police headquarters, according to jail records.

In addition to murder and arson charges, Michael Rowe has been charged with aggravated assault. He was booked into the Cobb County jail, where he was being held without bond, Raines said.

Investigators have not yet released the cause of death.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Rowe family.

Loganville Man Suspected in Possible Murder Suicide

Online Athens reports that a Loganville man is suspected to have killed his wife, then possibly himself.

Robert Cook, 52, was staying with his ex-wife, Judy Clay, 60, in Loganville when the two fought and Cook strangled her with an electrical cord, said Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman.

Authorities found Cook's body first, however. Greene County sheriff's deputies found Cook's remains Jan. 9 and asked Walton County deputies to notify his ex-wife, said Walton County Capt. Chris Cannon.

When deputies arrived at Clay's Walton County home about noon, they found her body inside, Cannon said.

Both deaths still are under investigation, and deputies are waiting on complete autopsy reports, he said.

Investigators don't know whether Cook took his own life on purpose or died accidentally, but he did take some drugs and alcohol, Cannon said.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Clay family.

DeKalb Murder, Attempted Suicide

A DeKalb County man allegedly stabbed his wife to death and then attempted suicide by poison. From the AJC:

The couple, whose names were being withheld until relatives could be notified, lived in an East Club Drive apartment, Mekka Parish, spokeswoman for DeKalb police, told the AJC.

A maintenance worker responding to an alarm found the couple inside their apartment Sunday in the Lenox Summit complex, Parish said. No one else was in the apartment at the time, she said.

Investigators believe the man fatally stabbed the woman and intended to kill himself, Parish said.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim's family.

DV Killings in Monroe County

According to Macon.com:

Alayna Pruitt, 43, and her mother, Sherry Price (age unknown), were found dead in their home on Debra Drive off Ga. 74, according to a release from the sheriff’s office. Pruitt’s husband, Ronald Pruitt, also was found with a gunshot wound and was taken to The Medical Center of Central Georgia where he was listed in critical condition Saturday. The hospital and Monroe County Sheriff’s Office could not provide an update on his condition Sunday.

WMAZ Channel 13 reports that Monroe County's coroner believes the deaths to be domestic violence homicides.

Update: The suspected killer in the case, Ronald Pruitt, has died, making this a double-murder, suicide. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Pruitt and Price families.