A Georgia man has been charged after being accused of shooting his neighbor who asked him to lower his music.
Alejandro Morales, 51, was charged with reckless conduct connected to the incident at a Lawrenceville, Georgia, apartment complex on Sunday, WSB-TV reported.
Eric and Jalyne Evans Jones said they decided to knock on Morales’ door to ask him to turn the volume down when the unexpected happened, according to the outlet. He told the news station that his wife was shot through the closed door moments later.
“The music suddenly went off. I heard the racking of a gun and a shot fired out immediately thereafter, striking my wife,” he said, per WSB-TV. “She immediately yelled out saying, ‘Oh my God, babe. They shot me in my abdomen.”
Jalyne was hospitalized and had to undergo multiple surgeries due to her injuries. Eric said the bullet struck her large intestine and is inside her body “a few centimeters from her spine.” He added that doctors had to “remove a portion of her colon,” the news station reported.
The couple said they no longer feel safe at the apartment complex and want accountability. Veranda Apartments will allow the duo to break their lease or change their unit, Atlanta News First reported.
The neighbor alleged that the husband had a gun on him when the couple approached the door. However, Eric said that’s not true.
“When I retrieved my weapon, that was after the shooting occurred, and I went downstairs to retrieve the keys to my vehicle and got my weapon at that time,” he told WSB-TV.
This is not the first time a knock on a door has led to violence in Georgia. Last month, Darryl Bynes of Atlanta was sentenced to life behind bars for the killing of his 19-year-old neighbor who knocked on his apartment door in 2019, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
According to the outlet, witnesses in court said the teen, identified as Omarian Banks, apologized for the mistake. However, he was shot multiple times by Bynes while he was running away.
