A Georgia father shot to death his 1-year-old daughter, the baby's mother, and himself, police said.
An Amber Alert in Georgia came to a devastating end when a 1-year-old baby was shot to death by her father, who also killed her mother and then turned the gun on himself, authorities said.
Jaquari Bennett had been kidnapped by her dad, Darian Javaris Bennett, on Saturday night after he shot to death her mother and critically injured her grandmother at the family's home in Covington, according to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office.
Keashawn Washington, 38, died from her wounds. Grandmother Peggy Burns was shot in the head, but managed to tell officers that Bennett had attacked her, her daughter and had taken little Jaquari, authorities said.
Burns was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she remains in critical condition, the sheriff's office said.
A statewide Amber Alert was issued for the child.
The 38-year-old father called 911 and confessed to the shootings, and said he planned to kill his baby and himself, the sheriff's office said. Using GPS, police were able to track Bennett's car to a church parking lot Sunday morning.
The vehicle was abandoned, police said, and arriving officers heard gunshots from behind the house of worship. In a gazebo in the adjacent woods, police said they found the bodies of the baby and her father.
“I had a gut feeling last night that this was the way this was going to end,” said Newton County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jack Redlinger. “It’s a shot in the gut. We’ve been working all night long trying to locate him.
"We were hoping it would end differently. You know, all of us have children and we’re still reeling this morning from what happened," he told WGCL-TV.
Two other children, ages 11 and 12, who were in the home during the shootings, called 911 to report the incident, police said. Those children are now in the custody of their uncle, authorities said.
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