Bridgett Lockhart’s children were just 11 and 5 years old when she was shot and killed in their Atlanta home in July 1999, police said.
Now, 27 years later, they may finally get the answers they’ve been seeking after Atlanta police arrested and charged Janarra Sherrer, their mother’s boyfriend at the time, with murder in her death.
Sherrer turned himself in at the Fulton County Jail on Monday after investigators negotiated his self-surrender, a major milestone in the cold case that came months after Lockhart’s daughter asked authorities for information about her mother’s killing, according to police and court records.
Lockhart, 29, had spent her last evening at a bowling alley with her children, celebrating a family member’s birthday, police said. Sherrer got into an argument with her at the venue, and the argument continued on the way home, the arrest warrant says.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Lockhart’s son took his little sister into their bedrooms when they got home as the couple kept arguing. The next morning, the boy found his mother’s body with a gunshot wound, according to the warrant.
It’s unclear why an arrest did not come sooner. At a news conference Tuesday, investigators said they don’t know what happened decades ago to cause the case to go cold. The warrant says the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy in 1999, “but the results were never communicated to the Atlanta Police Homicide Unit.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to the medical examiner’s office for comment. Atlanta police on Tuesday also described challenges from a time less dependent on technology.
“Our reports were back on paper then, so it appears there might have been a little miscommunication, but we were able to work through that and overcome any kind of hurdles to bring justice to this family,” said Lt. Christapher Butler, the homicide unit commander. “Whatever happened 27 years ago, we are in constant contact with the medical examiner going forward.”
Elandra Loyal, Lockhart’s daughter, approached Atlanta police in April of this year requesting information on the case, the warrant says. She then joined police for a news conference just last month asking for the public’s help to solve it.
Her mother’s death prompted Loyal to become a DeKalb County police officer, “helping others find justice, uncover the truth, and gain the closure that they deserve,” she told reporters in June. “But when it comes to my own mother, my family and I are still searching for that same closure.”
Loyal did not respond to requests for comment after Sherrer’s arrest, but Detective Summer Benton said Loyal “breathed a sigh of relief” when she told her about the arrest.
Investigators said they did not have Sherrer’s full name, partly because they were relying on memories of young children. But after getting the word out last month about their suspect’s possible first name, tips led them to him, police said.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
While being interviewed by the detective this year, Sherrer “originally stated that he wanted to clear his name and was not there” the night of Lockhart’s death, but then changed his story when investigators told him other witnesses placed him there, the warrant says. Police said Sherrer was also interviewed back in 1999.
His court-appointed attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Detectives said they believe he carried a .25 caliber handgun, which police say matches the caliber of the weapon used to kill Lockhart. Witnesses also saw his truck outside the home that night, according to the warrant.
“Mr. Sherrer admits to being inside Ms. Lockhart’s home and arguing with her on the night she was murdered,” the warrant says. “Mr. Sherrer was the only person seen entering her home besides her children.”
A sexual assault kit collected at the time of the killing was sent to the GBI for testing in June, but no male DNA was found, the warrant says.
Sherrer previously spent nine months in state prison in 2009 for theft by receiving stolen property charges, according to Georgia Department of Corrections records. Atlanta police say he has a lengthy criminal history.
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