A fight between a Hall County couple turned deadly after the woman’s father stepped in.
All three people lived in the house on Jet Wright Road in which the shooting was reported to have happened around 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
Sabrena Kapetanis lives next door to where the incident occurred and said, “It’s just tragic. I can’t believe it happened. They’re really good people.”
Kapetanis said that the young couple -- Jessica Rusk, 22 and her boyfriend, Thomas McNulty -- lived in the basement of the home with Rusk’s father, Floyd Rusk.
Authorities identified McNulty as the accused shooter.
“He had shot his girlfriend, who was 22 years old, in the back, and in response to that, the victim's father shot and killed McNulty,” said Hall County Lt. Scott Ware.
Jessica Rusk was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where she is listed as stable and is expected to make a full recovery.
Police say it appears Rusk’s father was defending his daughter, and therefore no charges have been made.
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“All he sees is probably his daughter shot,” Kapetanis said. “You don’t know what’s going on. You don’t have time to react, especially if he still has a gun in his hand. He did the only thing he could.”
Investigators told Channel 2's Chris Jose that the couple's son was home during the shooting.
Jose also learned that McNulty was fired from his information technology job two weeks ago, after he brought a gun to work.
Scott Corathers, McNulty’s former boss said, “He lasted about a week and, unfortunately, I had to let him go. He actually brought a handgun into one of my job sites.”
Corathers told Jose that McNulty said he forgot that the gun was in his back pocket.
“It’s kind of shocking to me,” said Corathers. "Like I said, I saw him about two weeks ago. He was a good employee who made a bad mistake.”
Police say Floyd Rusk is cooperating with the investigation.
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