A woman gunned down in front of her two children outside a North Georgia fire station feared for her life after leaving her husband, friends told Channel 2 Action News.
Amy Gibson was shot to death Monday night in front of her 5-year-old and 8-year-old after fleeing 44-year-old Jeremy Wade Gibson, said Dawson County Sheriff Jeff Johnson. Authorities said the ordeal began with a frantic 911 call about 7:30 p.m.
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A short time later, Amy Gibson pulled into the parking lot of fire station 7 on Dawson Forest Road with her husband right behind in his vehicle, authorities said.
She stayed in her vehicle as her husband approached and fired several shots, Johnson told Channel 2. She was dead in the driver’s seat when police arrived.
Jeremy Gibson immediately surrendered to firefighters and was taken into custody when deputies got to the station.
“The fire station should be a safe haven, and obviously that’s what we believe that this lady was looking for,” Johnson said from the scene Monday night.
Friends of the Gibsons said Amy sought help long before she was killed, and even tried to get a restraining order against her husband, who they said was a former Army Ranger.
“No one intervened,” her friend, Kristi Peterson, told the news station. “It was behavior that was alarming and scary, and no one stopped it.”
According to Peterson, Amy Gibson constantly feared for her safety, and told her she “didn’t know how this would end without someone dead.”
Another friend, Susand Stute, told the news station things got worse when Amy said she wanted a divorce and moved in with her mother.
“I wasn’t surprised,” she said.
At his first appearance hearing Wednesday afternoon, Jeremy Gibson told the judge he had trouble processing information because of a traumatic brain injury and could not read or write.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Authorities said the couple had domestic issues in the past, but Jeremy Gibson had never been arrested.
“I think he’s proud of himself,” Peterson said. “That’s what he wanted. He wanted her gone.”
The two children are in the custody of the Division of Family and Children Services.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to them as far as if they’re going to be OK,” Stute said. “I don’t know how you recover from that.”
Channel 2 reported that Amy Gibson’s sister is working to get custody of the children. Jeremy Gibson’s next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 14.
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