SHEILA A. MATHEWS :::
The suspect in the Wednesday night domestic-related homicide of 23-year-old Steven Andrew Freeman claimed the shooting was accidental.
Freeman was killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest.
According to the incident report submitted by Griffin Police Department Master Patrol Officer Brian Earls, 24-year-old Mary Katherine Higdon, who has been charged in Freeman’s death, alleged she did not intend to shoot her boyfriend.
“I had contact with Mary Katherine Higdon, who was with Patrolman Johnson in the back bedroom of the residence and she stated that her gun ‘went off’ when she was handing it to her boyfriend Steven Freeman,” said Earls, who later stated, “Higdon repeated over and over that ‘she didn’t understand what happened and that she never kept a round in the chamber.’”
Higdon allegedly reported that prior to the shooting, she had been preparing a lunch for Freeman from that evening’s meal.
Earls also reported Higdon had been drinking, stating, “I could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from her breath as she talked and she began to mumble and talk in a manner where I couldn’t understand what she was saying.’”
Higdon has been charged with murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.