'My Son Just Killed Someone': Mom Of Teen Who Shot His Friend Inside Walmart

An argument between two 17-year-olds in Georgia led to one of them being shot to death inside a Walmart in Forsyth, police said.

According to a news release by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office 911 Center received a call at 6.12 p.m. Sunday “from a person inside Walmart indicating that someone was firing shots inside the store.” Monroe County deputies and Forsyth Police officers soon responded to the scene.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said that Tarmaine Jontavion Bowden and Cedric James Mayes were in the produce section of the store when they began having an argument. The feud continued as they moved to the frozen section, where Bowden pulled out a gun and shot his friend several times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Deputies arrived at the scene, and one of the officers saw a woman in a black SUV waving a flashlight in the parking lot.

Deputy Shania Hawkins, who saw the flashlight, approached the woman who was identified as Sonya Lavette Bowden in an incident report obtained by The Telegraph. “My son just killed someone. He’s in my car,” the woman yelled.

Deputy Hawkins and another officer then “grabbed the suspect and took him to the ground,” according to the incident report. While being handcuffed, Bowden told Hawkins that the gun was in his pants, the report said. The teen is in police custody awaiting charges.

Christopher Andrews, who grew up in Forsyth, said he always knew the two 17-year-olds to be friends and never imagined one of them would kill the other. "I'm very shocked, heartbroken by the situation," Andrews told 13WMAZ. “Forsyth is a small town. Just about everyone knows everyone.”

Sheriff Brad Freeman also spoke about the incident and said it is unclear to investigators where Bowden got the pistol from.

"I think a lot of teens, when they have these firearms that readily available, they come up with a permanent solution to what is, at best, a temporary problem," he said, adding: "When they do something foolish like this, it's going to have an effect on their life for the rest of their lives."

The GBI is still conducting investigations into the incident, according to the news release.