by Robin Kemp
Ed. note: It is the policy of The Clayton Crescent not to use mugshots except during an active manhunt or similar imminent threat to public safety. This story does use a photo of the suspect.
A Jonesboro woman is in the Clayton County Jail, charged with malice murder after allegedly shooting her husband at least three times in the head during a domestic dispute.
Rhonda Gail Tucker, 34, faces malice murder, possession of a firearm during a crime, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. She is scheduled to make first appearance at 10 a.m. Friday, May 28 before Magistrate Judge Keisha Wright Hill.
Clayton County Police say they got a call around 2 a.m. Thursday, May 27 about a shooting in the 300 block of River Road in Jonesboro. As they were enroute, police say Tucker had called 911 and said she and her husband, Bryan Tucker, 35, had gotten into an argument and that she had shot him accidentally. Police found Bryan Tucker dead in the master bedroom and detained Rhonda Tucker.
According to CCPD Captain Gary Flinn, “She advised that she and her husband had been involved in a domestic argument that had been ongoing, and that at some point, it went into the bedroom, and that she had accidentally shot her husband several times in the back of the head.”
When CCPD deputies arrived, Rhonda Tucker allegedly told them the couple had gotten into an argument that escalated into a fight, and that she had picked up the handgun, followed her husband, and shot him “until he didn’t move.”
Grieving family members huddled together in CCPD’s parking lot Thursday around noon. A woman who identified herself as Brian Tucker’s mother said she was told the family could not see him through the coroner, and wanted to know whether she could see her son’s body at the GBI’s offices.
According to Flynn, detectives said Bryan Tucker had been shot “at least three” times in the back of the head.
Flinn said this was the fourteenth homicide in Clayton County so far this year.
