Did a couple’s clash on Georgia’s tallest bridge lead to fatal shooting 200 miles away?
A bizarre shooting death along Interstate 16 a dozen or so miles southeast of downtown Macon Sunday morning may have been the tragic culmination of a young couple’s domestic dispute that began hours earlier and hundreds of miles away near the Georgia coast.
Sheriff’s investigators in Twiggs County on Monday were still piecing together details of the deadly episode, which ended near the freeway’s Sgoda Road exit shortly before 9:30 a.m.
It was then that a 911 call was received from a man who allegedly said he had shot his girlfriend inside the red 2013 Chevrolet Spark they had been riding in. When sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found 24-year-old Tykeiria Shawnaine Moody, of Riverdale, mortally wounded.
She had been shot, according to officials, at least five times.
The officials said the man who allegedly shot her, Tevin Alexander Miles, 29, of Morrow, said he and Moody had been riding home to the Atlanta area from Brunswick in southeast Georgia and that they were feuding much of the way.
Sheriff Darren Mitchum told The Telegraph that the two may have traveled to Brunswick over the weekend to drop off a child. Mitchum said the couple’s dispute may have arisen when Miles didn’t want to go somewhere with Moody on Saturday night.
The sheriff said the couple had some kind of altercation that police were called to on the massive, 480-foot-tall Sidney Lanier Bridge, which spans the Brunswick River. Details of that clash were not clear, nor was what may have led them to the bridge, Mitchum said.
But at least some of what happened hours later and some 215 miles away via interstate is known. At least from what Miles allegedly told investigators.
“He stated they had been having a domestic altercation most of the way back,” officials, in a statement, said of Miles’ account of the slaying. “The girlfriend was driving while he slept in the front passenger seat. He stated he woke up to the sound of a clicking noise and that Ms. Moody had the gun pointed at him attempting to shoot him. Mr. Miles then stated that he got the gun away from her and shot her 4-5 times.”
Miles was jailed on murder and aggravated assault charges.
This story was originally published November 22, 2021 at 3:20 PM.