With their spiky hair, small eyeglasses and toothy smiles, it wasn’t hard to tell Jacob and Jared Smith were brothers, just one year apart in age. They even behaved alike.
“They were sweet little boys, very polite,” family member Justin Lankford told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The best little boys in the world.”
As they slept in their beds early Wednesday, their step-father shot and killed them both before shooting their mother, grandfather and then himself inside the family's Forsyth County home. When deputies arrived, Jacob, 9, and Jared, 8, were dead, along with the shooter, Matthew Kyle Fields.
The boys’ mother, Rebecca Manning, had been shot, too, but managed to crawl onto the front porch, where she was screaming as deputies arrived. She died after being taken to the hospital. Manning’s father, Jerry, was also shot multiple times and underwent surgery at North Fulton Hospital, where he remained in critical condition Thursday, Lankford said.
Lankford was first cousins with Rebecca, who went by Becky. His phone started ringing nonstop Wednesday morning, callers telling him to turn on the news. He did, and that’s when he saw his uncle’s white house.
“Everything just stopped,” Lankford said Thursday.
Becky wanted to divorce Fields, Lankford said, adding that may have been what caused Fields to snap early Wednesday. But it was a selfish act that Lankford said family members are struggling to understand.
“If you want to do something like that, go shoot yourself, don’t take others with you,” Lankford said. “He took the kids and everybody.”
Fields left the Old Atlanta Road home where he lived with Manning, her father and sons late Tuesday night after he and his estranged wife had argued, according to deputies. But shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday, he returned to the house with a gun, shooting everyone in the home.
Then, Fields called his mother in Dawson County, according to investigators. His step-father called 911 to report the shootings. Fields then shot and killed himself, deputies said.
“He had an opportunity to tell his mama goodbye, but he didn’t give us the opportunity to say goodbye to Becky and the kids,” Lankford said.
Autopsies were being conducted at the GBI crime lab Thursday, Deputy Robin Regan said.
Jerry Manning, 75, must undergo additional surgeries, but family members are optimistic he’ll recover and possibly offer more details on those horrifying minutes inside the home Wednesday. Lankford said his uncle does not have medical insurance, and funeral arrangements have not been started for his cousin and her sons.
A memorial fund to assist the family with funeral costs and medical bills was set up. Those wishing to donate to the Rebecca Manning and Smith family fund can visit any Wells Fargo branch.
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