Richmond County authorities have released the 911 call from Katie Inglett as she tells dispatchers that boyfriend Tommy King Jr. shot her in the stomach before ending his own life.
In an emotional eight-minute call on June 1, Inglett asks for help, volunteers an explanation for the shooting and suggests she needs to call King’s mother right away since she will “freak out.”
“His momma is going to kill me,” Inglett says. “I didn’t shoot him, but his momma is going to just freak out. He is an only child.” (Story continues below.)
LISTEN TO CALL BELOW:
According to the website for Thomas L. King Funeral Home in Martinez, King ran the business with his mother, Nancy B. King. He is a former Richmond County sheriff’s deputy and unsuccessful candidate for Columbia County Coroner after his father died in November 2006. His father is also the namesake for Columbia County’s morgue.
Inglett continues to recover from the shooting. King was buried on Friday afternoon.
In the 911 call, Inglett tells the dispatcher that she and King had returned home from a restaurant and argued on the way home.
“He had been drinking tonight,” Inglett said. “I had to drive back from the Village Deli. We got into an argument, and he just kept on and on and on. He took the gun and shot me in the stomach and then he shot himself in the head.”
As emergency responders rushed to the home on Henry Street in Augusta, Inglett continued to volunteer an explanation, unprompted by the male dispatcher. At one point, she seems confused about the details.
“He shot me and then he grabbed the gun and shot himself,” she says. “I mean, he shot me and then he shot himself in the head. … He has done this before. He has shot the door.”
In a post on Facebook, WGAC’s Austin Rhodes said Inglett’s version of events has shifted as she talked to family and friends from her hospital bed.
“In one instance she says there was a struggle over the gun, in another she says he was waving it around and it went off accidentally,” Rhodes said. “Law enforcement has reportedly found HER fingerprints on the gun…and the 911 recording apparently features the woman more concerned about Tommy’s Mother ‘killing her’ (over Tommy’s death) than anything else.”
Rhodes said King had sought peace from Inglett outside the residence several times, sleeping at the funeral home rather than share the house with her.
The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the case. Meanwhile, Coroner Mark Bowen said he could not confirm whether or not it was a suicide until the GBI concludes its autopsy.
