The discovery of a woman’s body prompted a SWAT standoff at a South Fulton home Saturday, which ended when the suspected gunman took his own life, police said.
The woman, 30-year-old Teante Jones, had been reported missing out of the Fairburn Police Department’s jurisdiction before South Fulton police found her dead about 11 p.m. inside a residence in the 3400 block of Sable Chase Lane.
A suspect, identified by police as 43-year-old Kenneth Southern, was discovered barricaded in the attic. South Metro Regional SWAT was called in to try to negotiate with the man. He was later found dead with what was believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to South Fulton police.
The police department initially requested the GBI’s help but ultimately decided to handle the investigation on its own. No officers fired their weapons, and none were injured, the department said in a news release.
Police did not release any other details about the apparent murder-suicide or Southern’s relationship to Jones. The woman, known by her friends as “TK,” was a member of a community of Jeep owners on the Southside. When she was reported missing, the group took to social media to share photos of her and her blue Jeep Wrangler.
A neighbor on Sable Chase Lane told Channel 2 Action News she saw the Jeep parked outside the home and overheard an argument moments before the deadly shooting. The neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said she called police multiple times when she saw a man get physical with Jones.
“I remember her saying, ‘This my house. Get out of my house ... This my stuff. Just leave,’” the woman told the news station. “I can remember him grabbing her, trying to reach for her with his right arm and she jerked back.”
The woman said she saw the argument as she was walking by the house, and when she walked by again the Jeep was gone.
On Sunday, members of Jones’ Jeep Life community gathered in her memory to release purple balloons.
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