A man allegedly shot and killed his child’s mother and her boyfriend during a custody exchange in Newton County on Sunday evening, according to authorities.
Around 6:15 p.m., deputies were called to a home along Pebble Lane in a neighborhood just a few miles outside Covington, the sheriff’s office said. There, they found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds.
Investigators believe the man and his girlfriend were sitting in their car outside the house with the woman’s 15-year-old daughter for a custody exchange, but the girl didn’t want to go inside the house with her father, according to the sheriff’s office.
That’s when the father, Marquez Smith, walked into the house, grabbed a handgun, came back out and shot the woman and her boyfriend, a news release states. The couple then either attempted to drive away or the vehicle rolled down the street, according to authorities, and the car hit a mailbox and trash cans about three houses down. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
The teenager was physically unhurt, the sheriff’s office said. She is with family members.
Smith left the scene but later arranged to turn himself in to the sheriff’s office shortly after midnight, the news release states.
He is being held at the Newton County jail and has been charged with murder, aggravated assault, second-degree cruelty to children, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and a parole violation.
Police did not release any other details about the case.
