bowling68
Well-Known Member
A Georgia community is reeling from a tragic shooting that claimed the life of a young boy and both his parents. Cops say the boy's father pulled the trigger, then turned the gun on himself.
It happened at a rest stop in Varnell, Georgia, just before 7 p.m. Thursday. Police said Christopher Whitmore, 36, followed his estranged wife, Melissa Ball, 27, to the service station and parked directly behind her.
Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood said the couple's son, 8-year-old Grayden Lee Whitmore, was sitting in the back seat of his mother's parked car when his father pulled a handgun and shot him at close range, the Dalton Daily Citizen reports.
The service station is a combination gas station and McDonald's. Cops said people who witnessed the shooting told them Whitmore immediately shot Ball, then himself. All three family members died. Chitwood said the shooting is being investigated as a murder-suicide.
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Although it's not yet clear what transpired prior to the shooting, police said the couple had a history of domestic issues and were separated.
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Grayden was a second-grader at Beaverdale Elementary School.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/24/georgia-man-shoots-family-dead_n_7138088.html