Mystery as couple found shot dead at home with toddler in next room
A couple has been shot dead with their killer yet to be caught in what police are treating as a double homicide.
An unknown assailant killed Amber and Timothy Justin Hicks (also known as Justin Hicks), both 31, hours before their bodies were discovered Thursday morning (local time) in their home in the Acworth area, in the US state of Atlanta, police said.
Their two-year-old son was found unharmed in the home and is now safe with family members, Cobb County police Sergeant Wayne Delk said.
Sgt Delk told the Atlanta-Constitution Journal the deaths are being treated as a double homicide.
He believes the shooting occurred sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Neighbour Hannah Mabrey told WSB-TV Atlanta 2 the Hicks’s “were a sweet couple”.
“I just can’t imagine who did this to them,” she told the station.
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Ms Mabrey added she watched as police removed the toddler from the home and handed him over to his grandparents.
“I run up the street, they’re freaking out and crying, and the police brings the child out holding him by his torso, runs him out, and the grandmother grabbed him, and the grandfather grabbed him, and they’re crying and freaking out saying, ‘Where’s my baby?’” she said.
Mr Hicks was a local firefighter. In a statement, Cherokee County Fire Chief Tim Prather called him “a happy, funny, loved by many kind of guy”.
“He was always a highly motivated, energetic individual who deeply loved his job as a firefighter and consistently worked to do better and be better every day,” he said.
“He was really thrilled on his recent accomplishment of completing his paramedic program training. Justin has touched and impacted many lives, and he will be dearly missed. Our hearts are broken as we mourn the loss of a member of our family and his lovely wife.”
with AP
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