Cops: DeKalb man shoots new bride dead; 4 kids witnesses in case

With two gunshots to the chest, a DeKalb County man is accused of killing his new wife in the doorway of their apartment.

“The (victim’s) body was placed in the passenger seat of her car after being shot,” an arrest warrant for 42-year-old James Leon Beard alleges. “The victim’s four children were in the car and gave the same account of events.”

Charged with murder, Beard said the gun “went off,” killing Angela Juanette Bishop late Friday, according to a police report.

Police allege he did it on purpose and tossed the Beretta .40-caliber into the woods, but investigators haven’t released a motive. Police records released Monday also don’t make clear why the body was put in the Toyota Camry, or why the children — whose ages range from 8 to 13 — were in the car.

Beard was arrested at his home on Panthersville Road outside Decatur, where police arrived to find the body.

Beard said he’d heard a banging at the door and couldn’t see anyone through the peephole. He said the gun fired when he was opening the door.

Bishop, 38, who had been a resident of Hartsville, South Carolina, was pronounced dead at the scene.

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