Inset: Tavarus Toliver (Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Motel 6 in Columbus, Georgia, where the fatal shooting took place (Google Maps).
A Georgia man has been jailed after allegedly shooting and killing another man who stepped into a confrontation to defend the woman he loved, according to police and witnesses.
Tavarus Toliver, 24, faces charges of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, the Columbus Police Department said in a press release.
The deadly encounter unfolded Wednesday, Sept. 16, outside a Motel 6 on Victory Drive in Columbus. The victim was identified as 34-year-old Jonathan Tennie.
Officers were called to the property shortly before 5 p.m. after reports of gunfire. When they arrived, they found Tennie suffering from a gunshot wound.
Tennie was transported by paramedics to Piedmont Columbus Regional, where he later died, according to Columbus ABC affiliate WTVM.
Authorities have released few details about what led to the shooting. Witnesses, however, told the television station what they saw and heard at the scene.
Tennie’s fiancee said a verbal dispute escalated into gunfire. She described the confrontation to a WTVM reporter who arrived at the motel afterward.
According to the woman, Toliver was familiar to the group because he was dating her sister. She said the argument began after Tennie objected to the way Toliver was speaking to the women present.
“He doesn’t like women being disrespected in any kind of manner,” she said. “Verbally, physically, anything. So he speaks out on it.”
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The fiancee said she eventually helped Tennie calm down, but alleged that Toliver continued the argument. She told WTVM that Toliver then drew a gun and fired.
“He saved me,” the woman said through tears. “I’m here because he’s not. Over a family quarrel.”
She remembered Tennie as a devoted partner who stayed by her side while the couple faced a difficult period in their lives.
“We had just lost our home,” she said. “That’s why we’ve been living in hotels. We were living in our car. And he had every option to go and stay with family, but he chose to stay with me so I didn’t have to go through it alone.”
She also said Tennie embraced her relatives as his own, despite the couple not yet being married.
“He loved my nephews fiercely,” she said. “He was their favorite uncle in the world.”
Toliver remains held without bond at the Muscogee County Jail. He appeared in court Friday for a bond hearing.
The post “He saved me”: Man shot and killed defending fiancee during altercation over “women being disrespected,” witness says first appeared on Law & Crime.