MONROE, Ga. — A Christmas day shooting brought a Monroe community together Thursday night.
“We lost a great daughter. We lost a great mother. We lost a great friend,” said Johnny Atkinson.
35-year-old Tyeisha Colley was his daughter.
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“Everybody loved her, just truly,” said Atkinson.
“The teachers, the teachers loved her,” said Tonya Odums. Odums was one of her cousins.
Family said she was a teacher at Salem High School in Conyers. She was married to her childhood sweetheart, U.S. Army Veteran Jermaul Colley, and they adopted three children before having one of their own recently.
“Their relationship was beautiful,” said Odums.
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Wednesday, they were back in their hometown of Monroe to celebrate Christmas with family before taking a trip to Disney with their children. They were at her parent’s home when her father said her nephew, his grandson, shot her.
Monroe Police arrested Devin Sullivan, 21.
“We didn’t even know he had a gun,” said Atkinson. He said it happened as she was pulling out of the driveway with her husband and children in the car.
He said no arguments led up to it, and Sullivan was close to his aunt.
“She helped raise him. She was like second mom,” said Odums.
“That’s why it hurt everybody so bad, and it’s hard to grasp,” said Atkinson.
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Monroe Police said a bullet hit the husband, but family said he was not hurt.
They wonder if mental health played a part and said they have to now focus on supporting the nephew’s mom and the aunt’s husband and children at the same time.
“We trust in God,” said Melissa Atkinson.
Sullivan is in Walton County Jail facing charges of Aggravated Assault and Murder.
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