Man murders child's mother, woman's boyfriend during custody exchange in Covington, deputies say
Marquez Smith (Newton County Sheriff's Office)
NEWTON COUNTY, Ga. - A Newton County man is in custody accused of killing the mother of his child and her boyfriend during a custody exchange in Covington, Georgia Sunday afternoon.
Officials with the Newton County Sheriff's Office tell FOX 5 that around 6:15 p.m., deputies responded to reports of a person shot at a home on Pebble Lane.
At the scene, deputies found a man and woman dead with gun wounds.
According to investigators, the victims were at the home to drop off the woman's 15-year-old daughter for a custody exchange. However, officials say the teenager did not want to go into the house with her father.
At some point in the interaction, deputies say the teen's father and the suspect in the shooting, identified as Marquez Smith, went back into the home, retrieved a gun, came back out, and shot both his daughter's mother and the woman's boyfriend, killing them. The family of one of the victims told FOX 5 that the couple's 7-month-old child was also in the car at the time of the shooting. The family says none of children were hurt.
"We got three kids, two girls and a boy, 15, 8, and 7 months old that's now gonna be without either parent and they need love, they need prayers, they just need an army," said Brittany Payne, the victim's sister-in-law.
After the shooting, deputies say Smith fled the scene. Shortly after midnight, he made arrangements to turn himself in at the Newton County Sheriff's Office.
Smith is charged with two counts of felony murder, two counts of felony aggravated assault, one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, two counts of cruelty to children, and one count of violating parole.