Eyewitness News spoke with the victim's mother earlier Friday, and she said she thinks this all happened because of the rage and the jealousy on the part of the suspect. Now a young woman is in the hospital recovering from serious gunshot wounds. The couple's toddler is fatherless.
Cries of anguish shatter the calm of the Athens neighborhood Friday afternoon. Family members and friends of the suspect reacted to news from police that Deon Rogers has committed suicide.
"He is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and has probably been dead for a couple of hours, but they had to take their time because we really weren't sure," said LAPD Deputy Chief Kenny Garner.
Police say at 8 a.m. Rogers went to his ex-girlfriend's home on the 600 block of Laconia Boulevard and forced his way inside.
Pamela Moore's daughter, 20-year-old Royce Moore, is Rogers' ex-girlfriend. "I talked to her this morning when I called, and when I was told that he was in there -- because he wasn't supposed to be over there -- he's been abusing her, he said he was going to kill her, himself and the baby," said Pamela Moore. Moore said her daughter has a restraining order against Rogers because he couldn't accept their breakup.
Moments after police arrived on scene, Rogers shot Moore twice in the face in front of the couple's toddler son, according to police. Moore took her baby and crawled out of the house to safety.
"She crawled out, my baby crawled out on hands and knees, pushing her baby in front of her, saying 'Go, baby, go,'" said Pamela Moore. "She crawled out of that house, shot."
Moore is relieved her daughter and grandson are alive.
"She got shot twice, in the side of the head, the bullet hit her skull and stopped. The neurosurgeon said my baby is lucky. I said, 'No, my baby is blessed,'" said Moore. "You know, God's had his hands all over that. I talked to her this morning, he told me he was in there with a gun on her, and I said, 'I'm on my way.'"
Pamela Moore said, surprisingly, her daughter will not need surgery. She is doing remarkably well. The little boy was physically unhurt and is OK.
Eyewitness News Reporter Melissa MacBride contributed to this report.
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