Arrests made in deadly Dodge County shootings

The GBI is investigating Christmas morning shootings that killed two people in Dodge County.

Jeffery Marcus Coppock, 51, of Roddy Highway in Eastman was pronounced dead shortly after 1 p.m. Thursday at a friend’s house where he was staying on Garrett Oxley Road near Gresston, said Dodge County Coroner Joe Smith.

Randall Carr, 35, who lives at the house, was charged with murder after Coppock was shot in the head with a shotgun hours before Carr called 911, said Bill Bodrey, assistant special agent in charge of the GBI’s Eastman office.

The killing happened sometime after Coppock’s last text to his wife at 3:30 a.m. that morning.

A motive for the shooting was not clear Friday afternoon, but toxicology tests will determine whether the men were under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

In the city limits of Eastman sometime before 5 a.m. Christmas morning, 21-year-old Rachel Pittman sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the head that ended her life several hours later at 9:10 p.m. Thursday at Medical Center, Navicent Health.

Pittman was with Timothy Harrell at his house at 5714 Anson Ave. along with Harrell’s 17-year-old brother, Matthew Rowland, and Harrell’s girlfriend, Virginia Wilkerson, an adult whose age was not readily available, Bodrey said.

The Eastman Police Department and the GBI are trying to determine if the shooting was accidental, a suicide or homicide.

The three people with Pittman originally told investigators a burglar had shot her, but authorities soon learned that was not true.

In separate interviews, all three began to tell the same story that now leads investigators to believe Pittman accidentally shot herself while they were playing with a .22-caliber pistol, Bodrey said.

Harrell pulled the trigger on the unloaded weapon several times while pointing it at himself and others, and it did not fire, they said.

When Pittman took the gun and pointed it at her head, it fired when she pulled the trigger, they said.

“They all ended up with the same stories,” Bodrey said.

All three were arrested and taken to the Dodge County jail on charges related to the shooting and alleged cover-up.

Harrell is charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and tampering with evidence for allegedly removing the gun from his house, Bodrey said.

Rowland is charged with leaving the scene of a crime and tampering with evidence for allegedly throwing the gun in a creek, where it was later recovered.

This story was originally published December 26, 2014 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Arrests made in deadly Dodge County shootings."