The wife of Peachtree City’s police chief told GBI agents that she believes her husband accidentally shot her.
According to GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang, GBI conducted an interview with Margaret McCollom on Monday afternoon in her hospital room at Atlanta Medical Center, where she is now listed in good condition after being shot in the early morning of New Year’s Day.
Lang said in a statement McCollom told agents she was asleep when her husband, Chief William McColom, shot her so she could not give them any details.
“However, she believes the shooting was an accident,” Lang said.
The chief told the 911 operator when he called for help during the pre-dawn hours of New Year’s Day that he accidentally shot his wife.
GBI agents — responsible for investigating police-involved shootings in Georgia — interviewed William McCollom almost immediately after the 4 a.m. shooting at the couple’s home in Peachtree City but had to wait to speak with the wife until her condition improved.
Margaret McCollom was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center in critical condition after the shooting. But by Saturday, her condition had been upgraded to serious. On Sunday it was put at fair. Her condition was upgraded again on Monday.
While the chief readily told the 911 operator that he shot his wife, some of his answers to the operator’s questions were contradictory; at one point he said the gun discharged when he was moving it from the bed and later he said he and his wife were both asleep when he shot her with his department-issued Glock.
Margaret McCollom could be heard moaning and crying in the background of the recording of the 911 call that was released to the media on Friday.
Lang did not know how long it would take the GBI to complete its work and then turn over its findings to Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard, who will decide if the chief should face criminal charges in his wife’s shooting
Chief McCollom is on paid administrative leave while the GBI investigates the shooting.
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