Woman dies after shooting
♦ Nakotah Smith, the person of interest, is also suspected of burglarizing the woman’s home after her death.
Rome police are investigating a Friday shooting as a murder now, after the victim died at the hospital, and her boyfriend is also suspected in a burglary at her home.
Assistant Chief Debbie Burnett said Monday that Crystal Dawn Vega, 30, of 528 W. 13th St., Apt. D, died of her wounds and her body was sent to the GBI Crime Lab.
“Investigators are still looking for Nakotah Smith as a person of interest,” Burnett said in a release.
Smith, 33, of 18 Homestead St., is described as Vega’s boyfriend and a suspect in an incident report of a break-in at her home.
According to the report:
Vega’s sister Tiffany Vega of Atlanta called police to the West 13th Street apartment Sunday afternoon when the family found the back door broken open and items missing from the home.
Tiffany Vega told police they had secured the residence with additional locks before leaving around 8 p.m. Saturday night, but she believed Smith broke into the home and was still hiding out in Rome. Family members said two large flat-screen TVs were missing, along with 12 pair of tennis shoes, the victim’s iPhone and money from the victim’s purse.
Police found the kitchen window screen broken off, but the window remained locked. The burglar then cut the screen from the storm door in the back and shattered the glass — but the new door locks still prevented entry. He finally kicked his way in, breaking the door frame in the process.
The house was in disarray “due to the previously mentioned murder,” the report
stated, but family members provided a list of items they remembered seeing when they were there Saturday.
Police have provided few details of the shooting, saying only that it’s being investigated as a domestic violence case. Crystal Vega was found shot in the head at her home Friday night and taken to Floyd Medical Center.
Meanwhile, an online fundraiser Tiffany Vega is hosting to cover her sister’s expenses had raised over $2,000 as of Monday afternoon. She also said they are planning a fundraiser at 5 p.m. today at 2005 Flannery St.
“Anyone can come by and buy plates and celebrate my sister’s life,” Tiffany Vega wrote on Facebook.
Several posts by friends point accusations for the shooting at Smith.
This is the second murder added to Rome police investigators’ caseload in the past few days.
Officers were still looking
Monday for Grady Harper Jr., 28, of 3 Roseway Cir.,
Apt. B, who is accused of shooting to death John Alton Allen Jr., 36, during an argument Saturday afternoon at 302 Wright St.
Allen was shot in the chest, ribs and stomach shortly after 4 p.m. and died later that day at FMC.
According to a police report:
Investigators went to Harper’s home Saturday after a tip that he was hiding there.
His brother, Jamal Harper, met them outside and told them Grady Harper had stolen his girlfriend’s 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt and fled.
The girlfriend told police she was awakened by Jamal Harper telling her that his brother had shot someone and stolen her car.
She said she had believed her keys to be in her purse but Jamal told her he had them and Grady “got them away from him.”
Under questioning by
officers, the woman said she had the impression Jamal Harper was present when Grady shot the man. At the same time, information from 911 came that a witness also said Jamal was there.
The car was found later, abandoned on Wilshire Road.
Jamal Harper was taken to the Law Enforcement Building for an interview and later driven home.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact the lead investigator, Corey Bowers, at 706-2385129.