Anchored by a grocery store, several restaurants and salons, the Crossroads shopping center is a busy spot near the Paulding-Cobb county line. But around lunchtime Monday, it was the scene of a deadly shooting inside a hair salon, according to police.
A 45-year-old man allegedly shot and killed a woman inside Julia's Hair Salon shortly before noon. Then, the man put his hands up in the air and surrendered, Cpl. Ashley Henson with the Paulding County Sheriff's Office said.
On Tuesday, investigators said the alleged shooter, Robert Steven McDaniel, killed his wife, 29-year-old Maria Nunez McDaniel. Maria McDaniel, a native of the Dominican Republic, died at the scene of the shooting, according to police. The couple did not have children together, Henson said.
Early Monday afternoon, the parking lot outside of the salon, located in the 8800 block of Dallas-Acworth Highway, was a chaotic scene as deputies gathered information. But before the names of the two people involved were released, investigators said the two knew each other.
"This was not random," Henson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "He sought out this female victim."
After the shooting, Robert McDaniel then allegedly walked out of the salon and into the parking lot, where he was quickly apprehended by Paulding and Cobb sheriff's deputies who had been eating lunch at a nearby Subway restaurant.
"He held his hands up and surrendered," Henson said.
McDaniel was arrested without incident and transported to the Sheriff's Office, where he was interviewed by both deputies and GBI agents who assisted with the investigation. He was charged with murder and booked into the Paulding County jail, where he was being held without bond. Address records show the McDaniels lived in Paulding County, about five miles from where he was arrested.
A lady whose hair was still in rollers was seen leaving a nearby Taco Bell after speaking with investigators. She was still too shaken to talk and left the parking lot with a family member.
Employees of nearby shops gathered in the parking lot, shocked at the news. Some nearby residents, such as Jake Breakwell, of Acworth, said he drove to the shopping center after hearing helicopters flying over his home.
"This isn't the area that you see this in at all," Breakwell said. "This is a real tight-knit community."
The investigation into the shooting continued late Monday.
