‘I tried to stop the bullet’; Family identifies woman shot, killed in Gwinnett home

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Family members have identified a woman who was killed at a home in Lawrenceville early Thursday morning.

Keisha Dowdell, 43, was shot to death at a home on Gloster Mill Drive around 4:30 a.m.

Police named 45-year-old Corey Dowdell as the suspect in the murder. They said he left the home after the shooting and was possibly armed with a revolver.

Channel 2′s Audrey Washington was headed to the crime scene on Lawrenceville Parkway when she spotted a man being arrested who matched Dowdell’s description. Police have since confirmed that Dowdell was taken into custody.

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Witnesses in the home told investigators they heard arguing and then shots being fired.

“I tried to stop the bullet,” Doreen Hamilton, one of Keisha Dowdell’s friends, said.

Washington later spoke to Dowdell’s friends and family.

When Washington asked Keisha Dowdell’s friend April Payne what she thought as she watched the video of Corey Dowdell being arrested, she said it was the look on his face that made her stomach turn.

“At first I was feeling bad, until I saw him smiling,” she said.

“That was too much. You smile at the fact that you just killed your wife?” Hamilton said.

Both Payne and Dowdell said that they tried to stop the violent argument between Keisha and Corey Dowdell in the moments before her death.

“I saw her with a big knot on her head. I saw them both with guns and I wish I could…I saw them both with guns so I left the room and when I made it to the bottom of the stairs I heard the gunshot,” Payne told Washington.

“I don’t feel like he really wanted her dead. I think it was the alcohol and it went too far,” Hamilton said.

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Police say someone heard arguing at the home around 4:30 a.m. and called police. When they arrived, they found Keisha Dowdell dead inside.

Investigators are exploring motives in this case but said there is an indication that this may be domestic related.

Corey Dowdell now faces several charges including felony murder.

Authorities are asking any other witnesses or someone who may know more about this shooting to come forward to Gwinnett County police.

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