Cops: Domestic dispute leaves 3 dead in Kirkwood home

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By Marcus K. Garner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Angela Pearson had made a clean break from her boyfriend, Charlie Woods, earlier this summer, family and friends said.

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Marcus Garner, mgarner@ajc.com A loved one is consoled outside the crime scene in Ridgedale.

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But Thursday, the two were found dead in Pearson's Kirkwood home with her son, 24-year-old Darryl Pearson, victims of what police believe was a double murder-suicide.

"This didn't have to happen this way," said Nicole Pearson, who lost her mother and her brother to the incident, as she arrived on the scene of the incident later Thursday afternoon.

Friends and family rushed to console her as she sobbed openly. Other family friends and loved ones were equally as expressive as they watched police investigators go into Angela Pearson's home.

And they all huddled together in tears as they watched Fulton County Medical Examiner's office staff bring the bodies from the house.

Later, 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."

Angela Pearson, 50, was a computer network specialist in the DeKalb County schools, friends and family members said. Darryl Pearson was a supervisor with UPS. Woods, whose age was not immediately available, worked for the DeKalb County Recreation Department.

Police say the deaths were spurred by some dispute between Woods and Angela Pearson.

"We believe this was a domestic [dispute]," Atlanta police homicide unit commander Lt. Paul Guerrucci told reporters, noting that two guns were found inside the home in the 2200 block of Ridgedale Road in northeast Atlanta.

Police said they were called to a report of criminal trespassing around 2:15 p.m..

Officers arrived to find two men and a woman dead inside the house from apparent gunshot wounds.