Hours after Sean Edwards-Tuggle shot and killed his stepfather in Loganville, he threatened to “keep killing more people” until his girfriend would speak to him, a Gwinnett County detective said.
Edwards-Tuggle, 26, was in Gwinnett County court for a preliminary hearing Friday afternoon. He has been charged with murder and aggravated assault in the death of his stepfather, Christopher Grier, 44.
Grier had been in Edwards-Tuggle’s life for about 17 years. While there was “potentially bad blood” between the two, they had not fought in five years before the shooting, Gwinnett County Det. Shannon Kulnis said at the Friday hearing.
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Early on the morning of April 1, Edwards-Tuggle had a “domestic dispute” with his girlfriend in Covington, Kulnis said. Later that day, he went to his mother’s Loganville home for Easter dinner. As Edwards-Tuggle’s mother, Nikki Edwards, was cooking, she began “bickering” with her husband, Grier, over dinner preparation, Kulnis said.
The argument between Edwards and Grier “veered to the left,” going from dinner to other marital issues, but never became violent, Kulnis said. Edwards decided she was done arguing and prepared to leave the house, and Grier went outside to the grill. Edwards thought her son was also leaving, but he quickly returned with a gun, Kulnis said.
Grier walked into the house through a back door, and Edwards-Tuggle pointed the gun at him, the detective said. Edwards-Tuggle’s mother and 8-year-old daughter ran to stop him, but couldn’t reach him before he fired the gun.
“Say something now, (expletive),” Edwards-Tuggle said before shooting Grier in the chest and abdomen, according to Kulnis. Grier fell backward, hitting his head on the floor.
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“Blood was coming from everywhere,” Edwards told Kulnis when she responded to the scene later that day.
Grier was dead and Edwards-Tuggle had already left the house by the time an ambulance arrived. Edwards-Tuggle’s daughter told a paramedic, “My daddy shot my papa and I don’t want him to be my daddy anymore,” according to Kulnis.
Police don’t know much about where Edwards-Tuggle went or what he did between the shooting and when he turned himself in to Metro Transit Authority police in New York in the late hours of April 3. They do know that he called his girlfriend’s sister and threatened more violence if his girlfriend refused to speak to him, according to Kulnis.
“He said he was going to keep killing more people until he could speak to [his girlfriend],” the detective said.
There is nothing to indicate that Edwards-Tuggle killed or injured anyone else between April 1 and April 3 at this time, according to Kulnis.
Edwards-Tuggle was extradited to the Gwinnett County Detention Center from New York on April 13. He is being held without bond.
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