Murder charges filed in Roswell attack

Plywood covered the damaged section of a Roswell townhouse where police said Calvin Myers rammed a Chrysler Sebring in a fit of anger.

Officers responding to a report of a domestic dispute Saturday afternoon saw Myers, 37, climb over the car and run into 650 Streamside Drive. Lying on the sidewalk of the adjoining townhouse was the body of Minka Rachell Grogan.

On Monday, Roswell police charged Myers with felony murder and capital murder in Grogan’s death. Myers is being held without bond in the Fulton County jail.

Myers is the father of two of Grogan’s four children, who police said were sent to live with relatives.

The two-story townhouse is one of a row of five at the corner of Streamside Drive and Hembree Road, adjacent to a gated condominium complex. They were built several years ago as a Habitat for Humanity project.

A woman in one of the neighboring units declined to talk about Grogan or the incident Saturday.

Across Hembree Road, Mary Worley recalled the commotion that followed when police arrived to find Myers had barricaded himself in the townhouse.

“There must have been 20 police cars in the area,” Worley said.

Worley said she did not know Grogan or her children, but occasionally watched the children as they played nearby.

“We kind of kept an eye on them,” she said.

After attacking Grogan, police said Myers went after a friend of Grogan’s in the house. The man told police he was showering when he heard the car crash into the house. The friend ran back upstairs when Myers chased him and locked himself in the bathroom, police said.

Myers kept police at bay for more than two hours, at one point throwing a television set, toys and musical instruments from an upper floor window. The friend fled the house during the commotion, according to police.

A negotiator eventually reached Myers’ sister, who talked Myers into surrendering.

Roswell police Lt. James McGee said police had responded to past domestic calls involving Grogan and Myers, the most recent an incident in March.

Counselors were at Elkins Pointe Middle School, where two of Grogan’s children attend and where Grogan was well known, said Susan Hale, communications manager for the Fulton County schools. One child had graduated and another had withdrawn and may be attending another school, she said.

Hale said counselors were also at Hembree Springs Elementary School. Several Hembree Springs students were at a birthday party at a home in the neighborhood when police responded to Saturday’s incident, she said.

Police also charged Myers with two counts of aggravated assault, possession of a knife during the commission of a felony and first-degree criminal damage to property.