Authorities have identified a man accused of fatally shooting his ex-wife near the Spalding County Courthouse on Friday before shooting himself, authorities said.
Officers were called to the intersection of 6th and East Solomon streets in Griffin around midday Friday after getting reports of an active shooter, police spokesman Investigator Richard Powell said. According to police, Tom Mallory shot Marjorie Krystal Evans Mallory as she sat in her vehicle on 6th Street following a court appearance.
Just two days before the shooting, Marjorie Mallory had gotten an order finalizing the divorce that she filed for in late 2022. In that same order, she also had received a permanent restraining order against Tom Mallory, according to court documents.
The hearing that brought the woman to the courthouse Friday was unrelated to the divorce, Powell said.
“She walked out of the courthouse to her car that was parallel-parked facing north on 6th Street, and entered it,” Spalding Sheriff Darrell Dix wrote in a lengthy Facebook post Saturday. “Mr. Mallory, who was in a second car, traveled north on 6th Street with the traffic flow, stopped beside her car where she was sitting, fired multiple rounds through the passenger-side window of his car, and the rounds struck her.”
Marjorie Mallory died at the scene, while Tom Mallory fled the area and was later found by Griffin police with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. Dix said Tom Mallory shot himself in the head. He was taken to a hospital and warrants were obtained for felony murder and other charges, according to authorities.
Prior to the shooting, Dix said deputies had received several calls to the Mallory residence for fighting, but the primary aggressor was never clear.
“There were times when she claimed he hit her or pulled a gun on her, there were times where he said she got angry and hit him, and shot at him,” the sheriff added. “This was by all definitions a toxic relationship.”
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