In May of 2015, a tragic series of events unfolded in Macon, Georgia, culminating in the deaths of two individuals. The body of 30-year-old LaSmockie Fountain was discovered on a Saturday morning at a residence on Case Street. She had sustained a single gunshot wound to the head in what investigators believed to be the result of a domestic dispute. Her grandmother reported hearing two gunshots at approximately 5:30 a.m. and found her granddaughter shortly thereafter.
Fountain had recently returned to Macon from out of town and was staying with a relative at the time of her death.
Immediately, law enforcement identified 38-year-old Derrick Khunta Booze as a person of interest in connection with Fountain's death. Investigators revealed that Booze had several active warrants for his arrest, including for Aggravated Assault/Family Violence, Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon, Home Invasion, and Pointing a Pistol at Another. The relationship between Fountain and Booze was described as a long-term, volatile dating relationship. Fountain's family indicated that the relationship had a history of violence.
The search for Derrick Booze came to an end the following Monday when he was found deceased. The coroner confirmed that Booze had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Prior to the murder-suicide, there had been multiple attempts by law enforcement to apprehend Booze due to the active warrants against him. These warrants stemmed from earlier incidents in the same month where he had allegedly threatened Fountain with a gun, invaded her home, assaulted her, and discharged his weapon in her direction.
In the wake of the tragedy, Fountain's family expressed their belief that more could have been done by the sheriff's office to arrest Booze before he was able to harm her. They described him as being very obsessed with her. The Bibb County Sheriff stated that his deputies had been actively searching for Booze for two weeks leading up to Fountain's death and that he was considered the only suspect. It was also noted that Fountain had, in one of the previous instances of violence, expressed to deputies that she did not want law enforcement involved because she still loved him and had been in contact with him up until the night she was killed.
