Gunfire on I-20 in DeKalb County fatally wounded one man, leading to a chain-reaction crash that left a woman dead Sunday night.
When police got to the eastbound lanes just west of Panola Road about 10 p.m., they found the man inside one vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound, according to DeKalb County police spokeswoman Michaela Vincent. He was identified as 41-year-old Jesse Dempsey.
“The preliminary investigation determined that after the victim was shot, his vehicle came to a stop in the middle lane,” she said in an email. “That’s when it was struck by a vehicle driven by a female. That female driver exited her vehicle and was struck by a tractor-trailer.”
The woman, identified as 39-year-old Marie Fleuristin, died at the scene. Dempsey was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Fleuristin moved to Atlanta from New York in 2019 and worked as a hairdresser at the Cherry Blossom salon in the Old Fourth Ward, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
The 39-year-old’s friends described her as an amazing woman who loved her daughter more than anything and always tried to remain positive.
“If she fell down and she got up, she came out even stronger,” Diane Rivera told the news station. “It’s a great loss.”
An investigation shut down the eastbound lanes of I-20 for several hours overnight and wasn’t completely cleared until just before 5 a.m., according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center.
Detectives have not identified a suspect in the shooting. The investigation remains “active and ongoing,” Vincent said.
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