BYROMVILLE – Early on Thursday, January 25, a man named Willie James Morrell shot a woman, an infant and a teenager before turning the gun on himself. The victims, 47-year-old Priscilla Adams and the 17-month-old infant were dead on the scene while the teenager was brought to the hospital in Macon in critical condition. After extensively going through processing the crime scene reconstruction, the autopsy, victim and witness interviews and especially forensic analysis of evidence, GBI investigators and Dooly County Sheriff’s Department have reached this conclusion.

“Our conclusion is, on Thursday, January 25, Willie James Morrell fired five rounds from a .30 caliber rifle striking Priscilla Adams, a 17-year-old teenager and a 17-month-old, killing Adams and the infant and critically wounding the teenager. Morrell then walked back across the street to his backyard where he fired that weapon one more time, taking his own life,” GBI Special Agent in Charge JT Ricketson said in a press conference on Monday, February 5.

The shooting happened a little after 4 a.m. while the victims were going about their daily routines. It is unknown what the motive may have been.

The teenager was released from the hospital a few days after the shooting and is living with a relative in the county.