Cedric Prather Jr.’s three children were his whole life and when he lost his job as a truck driver recently, the pressure over supporting them may have led him to snap and kill four people, his sister said Monday.
The shooting rampage happened just after 3 p.m. Saturday. Prather, 33, parked about a quarter mile away and walked inside the suburban Atlanta home of his ex-wife, Latoya A. Andrews, police said.
Prather gunned down Andrews and her boyfriend, Joseph Terry Brown, and killed two of his own children, including one who begged him not to pull the trigger, police said. He also shot two other children, leaving them critically injured. He then killed himself in the street.
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Prather used a .45-caliber handgun to shoot all the victims and himself, and stopped at least once to reload. The sheriff’s office is working with federal authorities to see if he bought the gun legally.
Prather’s family is feeling deep grief and is also heartbroken for the families of Andrews and Brown, Sawyer said.
“We’re all hurting,” she said. “We’ve all had a great loss.”
