Atlanta business exec died from gunshot wound in the back

Atlanta executive Diane McIver died from a gunshot wound in the back, according to the Fulton County medical examiner.

Atlanta executive Diane McIver died from a gunshot wound in the back, according to the Fulton County medical examiner.

A prominent Atlanta businesswoman fatally shot inside a vehicle near Piedmont Park died from a gunshot wound to the back, according to officials with the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Diane McIver’s cause of death has been listed as homicide – the death of a person at the hands of another – said Mark Guilbeau, an investigator with the examiner’s office.

Police said she was a passenger in a 2013 Ford Expedition, traveling with people she knew, when she was shot. The wife of Atlanta lawyer Claud “Tex” McIver, she was sitting in the SUV’s front seat, police said.

The firearm discharged its bullet through a car seat, the medical examiner said.

The shooting took place late Sunday night. She died in surgery hours later.

Since then, police have said little about the killing and declined to identify who was in the vehicle with her.

“This is one of those situations we’re working through very slowly,” Sgt. Warren Pickard, a spokesman for the Atlanta Police Department, said Thursday morning. “We want to get it right.”

Diane McIver was president of Corey Airport Services, a marketing company based in Atlanta.

Tex McIver is vice chairman of the Georgia State Board of Elections. He did not respond to requests from the AJC on Thursday seeking comment.