A man has been arrested Tuesday for the deadly shooting of his girlfriend, a young mother whose body was found in the driveway of a Decatur home.
Mr. Carlos Jerome Simpson, 23, who lived at the Eagles Nest Circle home where the shooting occurred, was charged with felony murder, according to jail records.
The investigation began around 2:25 a.m. when police responded to 2226 Eagles Nest Circle after getting a call about a person shot, according to a police report.
Officers found the victim, later identified as Ms. Shikhira Dunson, 20, in driveway of the home, DeKalb County police Assistant Chief James W. Conroy said.
Investigators later determined that Mr. Simpson and the victim were having a domestic argument prior to the shooting, Mr. Conroy said.
Mr. Simpson’s sister, Ms. Lawana Simpson, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Ms. Dunson was her brother’s girlfriend and the mother of his 10-month-old child.
“Last night, I was bathing my kids and my son came in and said they were arguing,” Ms. Lawana Simpson said.
She said her brother went outside, and Dunson “came outside and was messing with him.”
“I didn’t know that my brother had the gun,” Ms. Simpson said. “He didn’t know it was going to go off.”
Ms. Simpson said her brother was pointing the gun at Dunson, and his girlfriend grabbed the gun and it fired. “She grabbed it and it happened quick,” she said.
Mr. Carlos Simpson drove away after the shooting, but was later arrested, Mr. Conroy said.
Still, witnesses gave a different account of what happened, according to the police report.
One woman told police she was talking to Ms. Dunson and another woman when the shooting happened.
She said they were standing on the passenger side of the car. The other woman was in the rear seat and Ms. Dunson was standing in the doorway of the driver's side when she saw a black Honda Accord stop and someone inside fired one or two shots at them.
The vehicle then left the scene at a high rate of speed. And by the time officers arrived, Ms. Dunson was already dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
“She was laying face up on the ground outside the open door of a small car in the driveway of the home,” according to the report.
Five minutes later investigators found a handgun, which they believe to be the murder weapon, outside on the south side of the house.
“It’s a tragedy,” Mr. Charles Simpson, the suspect’s father told the AJC. “We loved her like she was our own,” he said of Ms. Dunson.
“This wasn’t no hate thing,” he said. “It just happened, and now she’s gone from us.”
The shooting happened on the eve of the funeral for another one of Mr. Charles Simpson’s children, the paper reported.
He said his oldest son, Mr. Charles Simpson Jr., was killed in prison earlier this month.
The younger Simpson was serving a sentence for aggravated assault when he died Feb. 10 during a scuffle at Smith State Prison near Glennville. His death is being investigated by the GBI.
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