Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell says the shooting last week at a Mt. Airy address on Key Road was a case of “murder-suicide.”
According to investigators, 77-year-old Hershel Key apparently shot his neighbor 68-year-old Ronald Ramey. Key then shot himself.
Key Road is just off of Dick’s Hill Parkway in the eastern part of Habersham County.
Terrell made the statement Tuesday night. It’s the first official release of information about the crime to Now Habersham since the GBI’s initial press release was issued on March 26.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released an initial report last week stating that the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office, Habersham Fire Department and Habersham EMS responded to a call for assistance at 377 Key Road just after 1pm Wednesday. When they arrived, they found Ramey at his residence suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. He was transported to Habersham Medical Center in Demorest for treatment “but succumbed to his injuries.”
Key was found dead near a shed behind his house across the street at 374 Key Road. All the GBI would say at the time was, “It appears Key also suffered from a gunshot wound.”
Sheriff Terrell now says “Mr. Key used a .30-30 rifle and shot Mr Ramey. He then got a 12-gauge shotgun and went around to his backyard and took his own life.”
The fatal shot was fired from Key’s yard, across the road, as Ramey was doing some work on his fence. “He (Mr. Key) shot from his front yard,” Terrell explains. “He was in his front yard about midway between the house and the road.”
Terrell says the GBI has interviewed both families in an attempt to learn what precipitated the incident but investigators have not yet released that report.
