Alabama father and son shoot each other dead after younger man kills family dogs for biting GF's daughter
WAGERSVILLE, ALABAMA: A father and son duo allegedly killed each other after the younger one killed the elder's dangerous dog for attacking his girlfriend's child. Reports said that Kelvin James Coker first hit his son Kelvin Nicholas Coker in the torso after which his son fired at him in the neck on Saturday, December 19. The 60-year-old allegedly drove to his 32-year-old son’s house after finding one of his pets dead. The Metro reported that Nicholas had allegedly killed the dog after the canine attacked his girlfriend’s child. Washington County Sheriff Richard Stringer called the father-son duo “very dysfunctional” after they succumbed to their respective wounds.
As reported by The Daily Mail, according to chief investigator Blake Richardson, the tragedy happened after the younger man shot four of the family's dogs after one of them attacked his lover’s little daughter. The shooting killed two pit bulls. One of the dead dogs belonged to James. “His brother said dad is going to be upset that you killed his dog and Nicholas allegedly pointed the shotgun at his brother and using choice language more or less told him to get off his property or he would kill him,” Richardson stated.
Soon after the father’s dog died, he came to his son’s property and an argument ensued between the two. And as Nicholas took out his shotgun, his dad also pointed his handgun towards him and shot a bullet towards him. But the injury did not reportedly deter the son’s determination to harm his father as he too murdered him. “It's unfortunate that they would not value human life not any more than that,” Richardson added.
But Nicholas’s partner, Ariel Anderson, has refuted police’s theories regarding the incident and alleged that it was murder-suicide since first James shot his son and then took his life too. “Nic Coker did not kill his daddy and they did not have an argument!! Nic was protecting my daughter from his and his dads pitbulls that were hurting her and his dad just showed up and shot him because he was mad that Nic killed his dog then he shot himself!” she said. However, cops working on the case cited a coroner’s examination finding that claimed that James did not kill himself. “I’m very confident that’s how the events unfolded, we try and let the evidence speak for everything and make sure everything is considering with our witness statements and right now we believe that’s the case,” the sheriff said.
Besides, officials from the Sheriff’s office said the Cokers were involved in violence in the past. Eight years ago, James was slapped with first-degree assault charges for shooting his other son thrice.
In another incident, a Fort Bragg soldier allegedly murdered his heavily pregnant wife, who was due to deliver on Christmas, before taking his own life. The tragic incident reportedly happened in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Sunday night, December 20, when Sergeant Keith Lewis -- a member of the Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg -- shot dead his wife Sarah Lewis and then killed himself. The couple’s three-year-old daughter allegedly witnessed the horror.