A person suspected of shooting and killing two people who were found inside a burned home in DeKalb County last week has been arrested, police said.
The victims’ bodies were discovered inside a home on Cohassett Lane after firefighters extinguished an intense blaze Sept. 9, DeKalb fire spokesman Capt. Jaeson Daniels said.
On Tuesday, DeKalb police confirmed that the victims had been shot and killed before the fire. They were identified as Brittany R. Hall, 28, and Derris D. Woods, 35, by the DeKalb Medical Examiner’s Office.
The alleged killer was quickly identified and later arrested in Mississippi, police said, though they did not share the suspect’s identity.
Police have not responded to requests for more information and did not say if the murder suspect also set the house fire that grew large enough to endanger neighbors’ homes.
Daniels’ description of the fire painted a picture of an unusually intense blaze.
Crews were called to the home near Panthersville on Sept. 9 around 1:30 a.m., he said. They found the house completely engulfed in flames so powerful that firefighters could not enter the structure. As crews battled the conflagration, the house partially collapsed and firefighters had to work to protect the homes on either side.
Once the fire was extinguished and the structure had been evaluated and deemed safe enough, firefighters searched it and found the bodies of Hall and Woods, according to Daniels.
A neighbor, Tafari Stevenson-Howard, told Channel 2 Action News that he and a friend were watching a movie when they heard an explosion. Stevenson-Howard and his friend ran outside, where he said the home was already engulfed in flames. He described how the fire quickly spread and burned hot.
“We were standing here watching it and it felt like we were literally at a campfire,” Stevenson-Howard told the news station.
Woods’ aunt, Joan McDill, told Channel 2 that Hall was her nephew’s girlfriend.
“He’s a good kid,” McDill said. “He’s a father; he has daughters.”
McDill told Channel 2 that Woods’ death was especially painful for their family because his brother unexpectedly died last year.
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