Today Rachel Jones would have been 41.
There will be a party at her three-bedroom house with plenty of Popeye’s fried chicken, Michael Jackson karaoke and T-shirts bearing her image. That’s her idea of a party, said Chris Reynolds, the fiancé of a random victim of a Halloween weekend drive-by shooting.
Jones was the first of four people shot and killed in Atlanta between 10:30 p.m. Saturday and 8 p.m. the next night, Halloween.
Police have no suspects.
"We haven't been able to establish a ... motive," said Lt. Paul Guerrucci, commander of APD's homicide unit.
Detectives have canvassed the area. They picked up some information and are in the process of verifying those details.
"It was a drive-by shooting," Guerrucci said.
More than 15 shots were fired from outside.
“I thought it was a joke, a Halloween prank,” Reynolds said of the first shot fired into a Donald Lee Hollowell bar and private party.
When there was another shot, a man standing near Reynolds fell to the floor.
Another prank, Reynolds said he thought.
A partier standing with Reynolds, also believing the shooting was part of the Halloween celebration, asked “You think we should duck too?”
“I guess so,” was Reynolds answer.
Seconds later, Reynolds said, he saw the blood on the man shot near him, so he scanned the room, looking for his fiancé who had been about 20 feet away pouring drinks.
“That’s when I saw my baby, lying there helpless,” Reynolds said.
Three other people were wounded.
The next day, the woman with the audacious personality was gone. Her funeral is Saturday.
Jones and Reynolds got to the party just a few hours after they signed a lease on a property where Jones planned to open a restaurant called All In One. Reynolds and some of Jones' cousins plan to follow through, beginning Monday submitting paperwork for a business license.
“She’s trying to tell me it’s alright,” Reynolds said.
They met in January 2009 in a lounge. After talking a while, she was straight-forward when she insisted that Reynolds “put my number in your phone.”
“I said ‘what’s your name?’” Reynolds recalled. “'Your future wife.’”
Last February she had a party for Reynolds' birthday in a private room at a bowling alley.
But as festivities cranked up, Jones led Reynolds to a chair, with the family and friends watching. She took a microphone and asked Reynolds “will you be mine forever?” said Shandra Jones, her cousin.
"We were all shocked," said Shandra Jones. "None of us had clue. ... We didn't know it was going to be an engagement."
Yet the public proposal was typical.
"If it was something she wanted, she pretty much went and got it," Shandra Jones said.
Jones and Reynolds had not set a date for the wedding because Rachel Jones wanted to get the business near Lakewood going first.
The party Thursday is at her house in southeast Atlanta. Shandra Jones said she expected hours of telling stories and remembering the frequent gatherings of the three dozen first cousins; it's what she would enjoy.
“I know she loved her family," Reynolds said. " She loved me. And she knew I loved her.”
Rachel Jones had two sons – 19 and 20—a brother, dozens of cousins and a dog named Nino.
Anyone with information about the shooting should call Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS
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