Appling, Georgia Mass Shooter Wayne Anthony Hawes Made Threats On The Day Before He Murdered Five People And Then Took His Own Life

Information has emerged that Appling Georgia mass shooter Wayne Anthony Hawes, 50, made threats to family members on the day before the shootings. Hawes killed five people on Friday in retaliation for his wife moving out and declaring that she planned to file for divorce. Some of the victims were related to his wife, although she was not harmed. His body was later found by police in his garage where he had died of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He also attempted to set fire to his home before shooting himself.

According to WSB-TV, Lauren Hawes, daughter of the deceased, said that her father was a “ticking time bomb.” She and her mother, Angela Dent, along with her 1-year-old daughter barely escaped becoming additional victims to Wayne Hawes’s rampage because they were all able to find refuge at a neighbor’s house. Her grandmother and cousin were among those killed by her father.

Lauren, 26, told reporters that her father had made threats before, but no one ever anticipated that he would carry them out at the level of taking someone else’s life.

“He’s done things that were questionable in the past, but never to this extent. This is very surprising. We thought he could possibly hurt himself, but not others.”

Lauren provided more context to the shootings by explaining that her mother left the family home about a week ago. She had left Hawes before, but this time she took her belongings with her because on past occasions he would destroy her property when she would leave. On her leaving on this occasion, he apparently snapped.

She told the media that her parents had known each other since they were teenagers and that they had a common-law marriage.

The Devil Went Down to Georgia: Peach State Gunman Kills 5 in Appling, USA: https://t.co/kZ6rGxaVvv via @SputnikInt

— Prince Ballarama* (@narayanalaksmi) April 23, 2016

Among those murdered were Lauren Hawes’s grandmother, cousin, and grandmother’s brother.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the shootings took place in two locations. Each of the homes was only about a mile from the other. Three people were shot at the first home and two were shot at the second as Anthony Hawes vented his rage. Two of the deceased were church friends of the shooter and his family and were married to each other.

The victims have been identified as:

• Rheba Mae Dent, 85 (grandmother of Lauren Hawes)
• Roosevelt Burns, 75 (brother of Rheba Mae Dent)
• Shelly Williams, 62 (husband of Lizzy Williams; church friend of shooter and family)
• Lizzy Williams, 59 (wife of Shelly Williams; church friend of shooter and family)
• Trequila Clark, 31 (cousin of Lauren Hawes)

Georgia shooting leaves 5 dead as gunman shoots and kills himself… https://t.co/P5xeJCa8Hm

— Protest Easy Guns (@ProtestEasyGuns) April 23, 2016

Appling, Georgia is about 130 miles east of Atlanta and 20 miles northwest of Augusta.

The Appling, Georgia mass shooting was not the only mass murder in the United States related to a domestic incident this weekend. Authorities in Pike County, Ohio are still currently investigating the murders of eight members of the Rhoden family. It is believed that multiple killers shot the victims in four separate homes located near each other. Evidence suggests that most of the victims were asleep at the time that they were shot, including a young mother who was cradling her four-day-old baby. Among the victims in that case were seven adults and a 16-year-old male.

Of the four homes where the shootings occurred, only three children survived, writes the Inquisitr. Remaining family members surmise the motive for the shootings as jealousy over a demolition derby vehicle. Police have questioned multiple residents of the community, but so far have developed no leads as to the identity of the shooter(s).

A Cincinnati restaurant owner sent out a tweet on Saturday offering a $25,000 reward to anyone who could offer information that would lead to the arrest of the killer(s).

Pike County is about 70 miles outside of Cincinnati.

[Image via Twitter]