A West Georgia University professor fatally shot one of his own school’s students in a parking lot early Saturday, Carrollton police said.
Richard Sigman, 47, now faces a murder charge in the death of 18-year-old Anna Jones.
According to police in Carrollton, a college town located about 50 miles west of Atlanta, Sigman threatened to pull his gun during a verbal fight with another man in the parking lot of a pizza restaurant at 12:30 a.m. Saturday.
The man alerted a security guard, and when the guard saw that Sigman was indeed armed, police said they asked him to leave. But Sigman drove away and began shooting at a vehicle parked in the lot near Adamson Square, a busy nightlife district in downtown Carrollton.
One of the bullets hit Jones, but it’s unclear if she was the intended target or if she knew Sigman. Her friends took her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
A GoFundMe set up to cover funeral costs describes Jones as a “beautiful, sweet soul” whose “smile would light up a room.”
“This was a devastating and senseless crime that has left many hearts broken, a community in mourning and a grieving family,” the fundraiser said.
Relatives and friends also took to social media to express their grief and shock, with one friend writing that “to know Anna is to love Anna”. Stephanie Hodges, one of Jones’ former teachers, wrote that the 18-year-old freshman planned to become a teacher herself because she had a natural aptitude for working with children.
Another friend, Emma Phillips, described Jones as “endearingly kind, selfless, extremely loving, hilarious and generally the life of every party. She was just full of life and love. She had such a love for her family, friends and her hometown of Mount Zion.
“I remember many times she would buy me clothes, dinner and even pay me to get my nails done because I had no money and she wanted me to feel included,” Phillips wrote. “That’s just the way she was… Anything I needed, she was there to give it. I wish I was half as selfless as she was.
A relative told The Daily Beast on Sunday afternoon that the family was not yet ready to talk publicly about Jones’ death.
Zoe Whitestone, who was one of Sigman’s students last semester, told The Daily Beast that Sigman taught upperclassmen management courses.
“Many of us had it a few months ago and would never have suspected it,” she said.
The university has since fired Sigman. “On behalf of the university, we want to extend our deepest condolences to Anna’s family and many friends,” UWG President Dr. Brendan Kelly said in the statement. “We know this news is difficult to process and affects many members of our university community. We ask that you keep Anna’s family, friends and all those affected by this tragedy in your thoughts at this extremely difficult time.”
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