He claimed his girlfriend shot herself. Then sheriff’s deputies arrested him on a charge of murder.

Cherokee County authorities said Jesse Simmons, 40, initially told emergency dispatchers his girlfriend, 55-year-old Tammy Gilbert, shot herself Sunday night at a home on Lower Burris Road in Canton.

Authorities responded to the home about 8 p.m. and Gilbert was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, where she later died.

“After reviewing evidence at the scene, interviewing people that were in the home at the time of the incident and interviewing Simmons, detectives charged Simmons with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during certain crimes,” Cherokee sheriff’s spokesman Jay Baker said in a news release.

Simmons was arrested Sunday and is being held in the county jail without bond, Baker said.

In other news: 

Police said a suspect was in serious condition.

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