Griffin Man Shot

On June 1, 2021, at approximately 12:03 pm, Spalding County deputies responded to the area of North 9th Street near the intersection of Bleachery Street to a report of someone being shot. At the same time, Spalding County investigators were called to Spalding WellStar hospital for a patient seeking treatment for a gunshot wound. The person at the hospital was identified as Menzer Henley, 27, of Griffin.

When they arrived at the N. 9th Street location, deputies and investigators located Reginald Stewart, 27 of Jonesboro, standing beside a black in color Honda Element. The vehicle had sustained damage that appeared to be from gun shots, and they began talking to him about how his vehicle became damaged and the chain of events that had occurred.

Mr. Stewart volunteered to meet with investigators at the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office to give a statement while other investigators began canvassing the area for potential witnesses.

Sheriff Darrell Dix, “According to both Henley and Stewart, they had been followed to Griffin from Lithonia by Henley’s ex-girlfriend Latonya Tucker, (29). According to Henley, Tucker was upset because he no longer wanted to be in a relationship with her and he had called Stewart to pick him up and take him home to Griffin. Both Henley and Stewart stated that Tucker tried to run them off the road several times as they were traveling south on North 9th Street. Stewart then stopped his car so Henley could get out of the car and get away from Tucker on foot.”

“When Tucker saw Henley exit the vehicle and run away, she turned her vehicle around and began driving her car in pursuit of Henley. When Henley would not stop for her, Tucker produced a handgun and opened fire at him striking him in the left hip. Mr. Stewart saw Tucker shooting at Henley, retrieved his own handgun, and began firing at Tucker from the inside of his vehicle causing the damage to his own windshield.”

Tucker fled the scene in what was described as a black GMC Acadia. Deputies searched the area for Tucker but were unable to locate her or her vehicle.

“Tucker was arrested in Cobb County on June 2nd and her vehicle is being held there until we obtain a search warrant for it. She has been charged with aggravated assault, aggravated battery, possession of firearm during the commission of a crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. She is currently being housed in the Spalding County Jail.”

Mr. Stewart gave his statement to investigators and was free to leave. He will not be charged with any crime. “Mr. Stewart exercised his 2nd Amendment right was not charged because he was well within that right and Georgia law to fire his weapon at Tucker. He was lawfully trying to stop Tucker from causing death or great bodily harm to Henley as allowed by Georgia law. He did exactly what the statute allows you to do while in defense of yourself or another person. After he fired the shots, he remained on scene until we got there, spoke to officers, was cooperative, and told us what happened. All of the evidence recovered from the scene matched the statements of Mr. Henley and Mr. Stewart.”