Two women and a man were killed Saturday afternoon ending what apparently was an ongoing domestic dispute in Iron City Georgia. Larry Easterwood, in his late 50's, is in the custody of the Seminole County Sheriff's Office and charged with 3 counts of Malice Murder according to Seminole County Chief Investigator Dale Swanner. Malice Murder is the strongest murder charge in Georgia.
The scene, Daryl Fink on what he saw, the capture of Easterwood and Sheriff Heath Elliott moments after the capture
Seminole County Sheriff Heath Elliott stated store video showed the 3 victims were in their car at the Iron City convenience store. Larry Easterwood pulled in and walked up to the drivers side window and opened fire on the occupants.
The driver of the car, Christy Scott, was dead at the scene. Her husband, Rodney Scott, was transported to Donalsonville Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Easterwood's ex-girlfriend, Stacy Dismuke, was life-flighted to Tallahassee Memorial where she died. The 3 victims were in their thirties. The Scott's 5 year old daughter, also in the car during the shooting, was unharmed. The murders occurred at about 5:30 pm.
One hour later. Easterwood drove his jeep by the crime scene. Bystanders yelled there he goes and deputies, GBI and GSP all rushed to their cars and took off after him. Moments later he was located and arrested at his home about 2 blocks away. A bystander on scene stated they believed that Easterwood had returned to the area and sat behind a building close by and watched the scene before driving home.
Larry Easterwood had been released from federal prison about 1 1/2 years ago and was on parole. Very upset family members spoke with us saying that Stacy Dismuke and Larry Easterwood had lived together for about a year until about 3 weeks ago. Drugs, alcohol and domestic violence was said to be the cause of the breakup.
Larry Easterwood's mother, sister-in-law and neighbor talk about the domestic situation
Stacy Dismuke then moved in with her best friend and her husband, Christy and Rodney Scott, the other 2 murder victims. Since that time, there appears to have been ongoing harassment between Stacy and Easterwood. They lived only 5-6 blocks from Larry Easterwood's home in this small community. Family members felt the Sheriff's office should have done something before it escalated to this point.
"There was just so much we could do." Sheriff Heath Elliott stated. "It's very frustrating that we can not do anything to stop this type situation before someone actually does something to be arrested."
Sheriff Elliott stated a criminal trespass notice had been issued to Larry Easterwood and he had been warned to stay away from Stacy. Sheriff Elliott stated that he had personally spoken with both parties in an attempt to stop the ongoing harassment. He stated the he even spoke with Easterwood's federal parole officer in their attempt to handle the situation.
We understand a .22 caliber rifle was used in the shooting. The family told us that Larry Easterwood had gotten the shells for the rifle from his brother on Friday night.
Regarding domestic abuse, from what we understand, it is very tough to first of all get an arrest warrant, and even tougher to convict, if the victim does not want to proceed with prosecution. Added only for clarification, as we know nothing of this situation. We do however see probably 9 out of 10 domestic violence victims refuse to proceed with charges.
Based on many comments we heard, it appears to us that Larry Easterwood had decided he was going back to jail and this is how he wanted to go out.
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