6 key takeaways from records, reporting in family killings during Macon eviction
Ray Summers, 51, allegedly shot and killed his wife, daughter and family pets as Bibb County deputies arrived to evict them from their north Macon home Feb. 17 .
Summers, who owed more than $10,000 in rent and fees, then allegedly died by suicide, according to court records and the Bibb County Coroner’s Office.
Here’s what to know
• Deputies said they heard gunshots when approaching the Summers’ home to evict them on the 1100 block of Ridgeview Circle in Lake Wildwood, but received no response from anyone inside for about two hours. A SWAT team and crisis negotiators were dispatched and forced entry around noon.
• Brande Summers, 49, and her daughter Haliegh Summers, 21, were found dead from gunshot wounds inside the family’s Lake Wildwood home, along with the family’s dog and cat. Ray Summers was transported to a hospital and died hours later.
• Neighbors told The Telegraph they didn’t know women lived at the home, and rarely saw Ray Summers, who they didn’t know by name. A crime scene cleaner at the home on Feb. 18 said he was trying to contact relatives of the Summers family.
• Court records show a judge ordered on Jan. 29 that Summers owed $10,488.65, including $9,455.65 in monthly rent, $600 for utilities, $300 in late fees and $133 in court costs. Summers wrote to the court on Jan. 6, saying he planned to apply for a hardship loan once he had the eviction paperwork in hand.
• Coroner Leon Jones said Ray Summers was recently fired from his job at YKK Americas, a local zipper manufacturing company, where he had worked for about a decade.
• The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was expected to perform autopsies on all three victims Feb. 20 , according to Jones. Haliegh and Brande Summers were to be taken to Reece Funeral Home in Jeffersonville; Ray Summers was to go to a separate location.
Note: The summary above was compiled by AI tools and edited by journalists. Each story linked in the article was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.
