Killer in murder-suicide opened fire on Putnam County sheriff’s deputies, cops say
A Middle Georgia man who shot his girlfriend to death in Jasper County on Sunday night was later found dead in neighboring Putnam County after opening fire on sheriff’s deputies and then shooting himself, law enforcement officials said.
James David Mathis, 38, was said to have killed Kira Ammons, 41, in Monticello at about 9 p.m., the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement Monday. It was unclear what may have prompted the shooting.
Meanwhile, Mathis, quickly named a suspect by witnesses to Ammons’ death, then drove home to the west side of Eatonton where Putnam sheriff’s deputies arrived looking for him at his mobile home at 426 Glenwood Springs Road.
“He greeted them with gunfire,” Putnam Sheriff Howard Sills said of Mathis, who was believed to have fired multiple shots at the deputies. One of the bullets struck the trunk of a patrol car.
The shooting in Monticello happened just before 9 p.m., the sheriff said, and within half an hour or so his deputies rolled up at Mathis’ home, which lies about 14 miles east of downtown Monticello.
The deputies saw and heard a barrage of gunfire coming from the vicinity of Mathis’ single-wide but couldn’t tell exactly where he might be, Sills said. The deputies did not return fire.
“They didn’t even know the car was hit until after we found (Mathis) dead,” the sheriff said.
The deputies kept their distance and set up a perimeter around the mobile home as cops tried to speak to Mathis, but never did. After a relative of Mathis’ said Mathis might be outside the trailer, his body was found not far from the mobile home.
Sills said Mathis, who worked for a landscaping company, appeared to have shot himself with Hi-Point .380 carbine rifle, which was lying beneath Mathis’ body.