The man who Gwinnett County police said shot and killed one woman and injured another at a weekend birthday party for his child fatally shot himself in the head Friday morning, authorities said.
U.S. Marshals Office spokesman Gavin Duffy told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that fugitive task force members had tracked Ohave Whitfield to a hotel near Wesley Chapel Road and I-20 in DeKalb County on Friday.
Around noon, marshals began following Whitfield after he got into a car with a woman.
“We were preparing to take the vehicle down and take him into custody,” Duffy said. “We believe he ID’d police behind him.”
The woman driving the car ran a red light, then stopped near a shoe store on Wesley Chapel, he said. That’s when Whitfield, 40, shot himself in the head inside the car, authorities said.
Medics working with the marshals attempted to save Whitfield’s life, but he died about an hour after he’d been spotted, Duffy said.
The woman in the car was not injured, but was being questioned by police.
Gwinnett authorities had charged Whitfield with murder and aggravated assault for the Sunday shooting that killed 53-year-old Alicia Johnson. Johnson’s 31-year-old daughter, Dana Johnson, was also shot and taken to the hospital for treatment.
Police identified Whitfield as the alleged shooter later Sunday, but he had eluded capture, and Gwinnett police had said he might be traveling to Louisiana.
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