Homicide Unit detectives tonight are charging Gerrika Abernathy (also known as Gerrika Simmons), 28, with this afternoon’s murder of her friend, Marques Douglas, 34, inside Abernathy’s apartment at 2400 Buena Vista Pike in Bordeaux.
North Precinct officers responded to Abernathy’s 12:17 p.m. 911 call and found Douglas suffering from a gunshot wound to his head. He was pronounced deceased shortly after arriving at Vanderbilt Medical Center.
The investigation to his point shows that Douglas had been staying off and on at Abernathy’s apartment. Abernathy had told him to come gather his belongings, and he arrived today to do so. Abernathy claimed that Douglas punched her in the head during a scuffle, after which he went into a bedroom and closed the door. Detectives determined that when Abernathy fired the single shot through the bedroom door from the top of the stairs, Douglas was not an immediate threat to her and that she had the opportunity to walk down the stairs and leave. They further did not see a visible injury from the alleged punch Abernathy reported. During her interview, Abernathy said she didn’t mean to shoot Douglas, but was trying to scare him.
Source: Metro Police – April 15, 2023
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