Janice Peaks, a 60-year-old Black woman from Austell, Georgia, was killed on June 21, 2022, in a family tragedy that unfolded inside a home on Gardner Street in south Cobb. Police were called to the residence around 12:30 p.m. on reports of gunfire and found three adults suffering from gunshot wounds. Janice Peaks and her husband, Donnell Peaks, were pronounced dead at the scene, while Cameron King, their relative, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and died shortly afterward. Neighbors and friends later spoke of shock and disbelief, describing the killings as the kind of violence that shattered the calm of an ordinary afternoon and left people around them struggling to understand how so much loss could happen inside one family.
Investigators said the shooting was domestic-related, and authorities quickly focused on Marcus Darnell Smith as the suspect. He was taken into custody not far from the home, and police later identified him as Janice Peaks’ son, Donnell Peaks’ stepson, and Cameron King’s cousin. Early reports said Smith was the only suspect and that police did not believe there was any continuing danger to the public. According to reporting that cited the arrest warrant, Janice Peaks and Cameron King were each shot in the head, while Donnell Peaks was shot in the head and legs, details that made the brutality of the killings even harder for the community to absorb.
The case moved beyond the initial arrest. Smith was reported to have been charged with three counts of murder and three counts of aggravated assault, and later reporting said a Cobb County grand jury indicted him on multiple counts, including murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Public court information available later showed the prosecution was still active, with the case appearing on a Cobb Superior Court calendar in early 2026. In the sources located, there was no clear report of a final trial verdict or conviction, so the latest publicly available picture points to an arrest, formal charges, and an ongoing court process rather than a completed resolution.
