Man kills children before committing suicide


Published on: 08/04/08

PERRY — A 36-year-old man shot his two sons to death in central Georgia and wounded his estranged wife and his stepfather before killing himself, police said.

Michael Lee Hill was supposed to be picking up his sons, 7-year-old Michael Anthony Hill and 10-year-old Richard Lawrence Hill, for a visit Saturday afternoon at his parents' home in Perry, Police Chief George Potter said. Instead, the truck driver put headphones on the boys and shot them execution style in the back of the head, Potter said.



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He then shot his stepfather, 64-year-old Andrew Hill, in the chest and chased his estranged wife, 30-year-old Bonnie Jean Hill, into the yard. He shot her three times in the back and leg before shooting himself in the head, Potter said.

Potter said Andrew Hill is in critical condition at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon. Bonnie Jean Hill has been released from the hospital.

She told The Telegraph of Macon that her sons "were so smart and so funny and so cute."

"They has such charisma," she said Sunday as she sat at an apartment complex a few doors from the scene of the grisly shooting.

Police said Bonnie Jean Hill and her husband were in the middle of a divorce but were unsure how long the couple had been separated. The family had no history of run-ins with police, Potter said.

Bonnie Jean Hill said her husband had threatened the family once before when he was unemployed and going through bankruptcy. But she said she thought that was in the past and that "everything was going to be all right."

Her sons would have entered fifth- and first-grade at Tucker Elementary this month.

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