In the early morning hours of Friday, February 8, 2019, in Americus, Georgia, Detri Nakee Reliford, a 39-year-old female, was shot in the head at a residence on Starlight Circle. Emergency services treated her at the scene before she was transported to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center for stabilization. She was subsequently airlifted to a trauma center in Macon. Despite medical efforts, Reliford succumbed to her injuries at 5:25 p.m. on Saturday, February 9, 2019.
A suspect, identified as 33-year-old Kenneth Lee Harvey of Americus, was taken into custody by authorities shortly before 10 a.m. on the day of the shooting at the Americus campus of Magnolia Manor. Harvey was initially charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and was booked into the Sumter County Jail. Following Reliford's death, the Americus Police Chief, Mark Scott, indicated that the charges against Harvey would be upgraded. The investigation into the shooting was a joint effort by the Americus Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Region III Americus office, and the Sumter County Sheriff's Office.
Subsequent legal proceedings revealed that Harvey was Reliford's ex-boyfriend and that she was murdered in front of her children. Reliford's family later filed a lawsuit against the City of Americus, alleging that prior to the murder, she and her family had made numerous requests for protection from Harvey from the Americus Police Department. The lawsuit cited an incident on December 7, 2018, where Harvey had entered Reliford's home, taken her cell phone, and refused to leave, and alleged that police officers who responded did not remove him from the premises.
