A man allegedly shot and killed his child’s mother and her boyfriend during a custody exchange in Newton County on Sunday evening, according to authorities.
Around 6:15 p.m., deputies were called to a home along Pebble Lane in a neighborhood just a few miles outside Covington, the sheriff’s office said. There, they found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds.
The victims were later identified as 33-year-old Desiree Thomas and 29-year-old Craig Joshua Thomas, the sheriff’s office confirmed.
Investigators believe the man and his girlfriend were sitting in their car outside the house with the woman’s 15-year-old daughter for a custody exchange, but the girl didn’t want to go inside the house with her father, according to the sheriff’s office.
That’s when the father, Marquez Smith, walked into the house, grabbed a handgun, came back out and shot the victims, a news release states. The couple then either attempted to drive away or the vehicle rolled down the street, according to authorities, and the car hit a mailbox and trash cans about three houses down. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
The teenager was physically unhurt, the sheriff’s office said. She is with family members.
Smith left the scene but later arranged to turn himself in to the sheriff’s office shortly after midnight, the news release states.
He is being held at the Newton County jail and has been charged with murder, aggravated assault, second-degree cruelty to children, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and a parole violation.
Desiree Thomas’ family has set up a GoFundMe account to raise money to help with funeral costs and the cost of care for her three children who are now staying with their grandmother, Brenda Guerra.
“(They) were left with no mother after a tragic, senseless incident that took her life,” Guerra wrote on the fundraiser’s page.
Police did not release any other details about the case.
