Cobb County police arrested a Mableton man Saturday night and charged him with murder in the death his live-in girlfriend.
Thomas Schwartz, 46, was being held without bond at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on Sunday.
Police, responding to a 9-1-1 call that came in at 8:50 p.m. Saturday, found 45-year old Janice Oates dead of an apparent gunshot wound at a residence in the 900 block of Mable Street.
Detectives have not released a motive for the shooting.
Channel 2 Action News has reported that neighbors assumed the gunshot they heard was a firework left over from the Fourth of July.
The station reported that Lorinda Church heard a man yelling as he ran into a nearby Dairy Queen restaurant.
"Someone shot Janice," Church heard. "She's dead on the floor, shot to death."
Church identified the man as Schwartz. She told Channel 2 that she worked at the Dairy Queen with Oates for more than three years and that Oates and her boyfriend had a stormy relationship.
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