Shooting leads to serious injury, one fatality

A shooting early Saturday morning in Atlanta resulted in one victim sustaining multiple gunshot wounds and one fatality.

Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe told the Journal-Sun that his deputies and Atlanta police responded to a 911 call early Saturday morning.

“We got the call around 4:20 a.m. It was a 911 call from Robin Alexander that Sammy Alexander, her estranged husband, was shooting at the house”, Rowe said.

Law enforcement arrived six minutes after the initial call to a house on FM 249, east of Atlanta. They found the gunshot victim, 35-year-old Kelli Bolt-Welch, in the backyard.

“The owner of the house [Bolt-Welch], had been shot twice and was still in the backyard”, Rowe said, “The actor [Sammy Alexander] was still in his truck with the headlights on toward the house in the backyard. We didn’t know if he was out of bullets. We didn’t know anything.”

Alexander fired two more shots at the victim after police arrived.

“We had to go in the house and one of my deputies had to get on his knees, open the backdoor, pulled Kelli in the house, put a tourniquet on her arm and got her out of there.”

A third shot, according to Rowe, was muffled and presumed to be the round that Alexander used to take his own life.

“We waited until daylight so we could see in his truck, it was in the trees, you still couldn’t see, and it was still running. Texarkana SWAT got there and went in the house with a high-powered telescope, you could see that he [Alexander] was unresponsive in the truck. That’s when we approached the truck and then we notified the JP to come for the inquest.”

Bolt-Welch is currently in intensive care recovery at Christus St. Michael’s hospital in Texarkana. According to Rowe, she will need several more surgeries on her arm and leg.

Bolt-Welch’s friends and family are raising funds for her recovery.

Spaghetti dinners will begin delivering at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 11 with delivery available to Atlanta, Queen City, Bloomburg and Texarkana. The cost is $10 per plate, and those interested in participating can contact Rebecca Marrale at 903-559-5832.

Cass County Bank is taking donations on Bolt-Welch’s behalf, and a GoFundMe account has been launched as well.

This is an ongoing story. As information is verified, we will update in the next issue of the Journal-Sun.