Friend: Shooting Victim Was Always Happy

When Kenyatta Evans talks about Dejanirra Elrod, tears trickle down her cheeks.

She’s still in shock that her life-long friend is gone after being shot early Sunday morning. Elrod’s boyfriend of six months, Trevor Nuckles, 21, is charged with murder for allegedly killing 19-year-old Elrod.

“It’s like losing a sister, basically,” Evans said. “It’s sad. It shouldn’t have gotten that far.”

Elrod was a happy person who was always smiling, Evan said.

“I never saw her mad or upset,” she said. “She liked to have fun (but) she wasn’t really a party person.”

And, that’s because she was devoted her to 3-year-old son, Jordin, who Evans said was always with his mom.

“She loved her son,” Evans said. “It’s sad that her son lost his mom. If you saw her, she was always with him.”

In fact, Jordin was with his mother when she was shot, Evans said.

“I hope he doesn’t remember it,” she said.

Octavia McMickens, a relative of Elrod’s, said Elrod would often walk over to the neighborhood off Highway 140 from the apartments where she lived with Nuckles.

“She was a sweet, pretty girl,” McMickens said. “I loved her, and I miss her now.”

Evans said she was next door to the house at 370 Pearidge Road in where Elrod was shot but didn’t hear a thing.

“I didn’t hear the arguing or the shot or anything,” Evans said on Tuesday at her home just down the street from the crime scene. “I guess it just happened so fast we didn’t hear it.”

Officials with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said Elrod was shot five times. Evans said that after the shooting, Elrod was alert and talking. She died later at .

“They couldn’t stop her bleeding,” Evans said.

Authorities began a search for Nuckles, and a officer found him walking near the River Ridge apartments.

While Nuckles was taken into custody for questioning, investigators from Cherokee and the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Team searched the woods between the crime scene and River Ridge.

"A 9mm handgun, believed to be the murder weapon, was located approximately 50 yards from the crime scene in the woods off Pine Grove Road," Spokesman Jay Baker said.

Evans said she wasn’t aware of any problems between the couple and said that Nuckles acted like he loved his girlfriend.

“They would come hang out on the street, and it was fine,” Evans said. “It’s just said. She was so young. She was a happy person. She never hurt anybody. She wasn’t mean. If it was that bad, I just wish she had told somebody.”

Baker said that, while Nuckles had never been booked into the county jail before Sunday, he was a felon. However, he didn’t show up on a search of the Georgia Department of Corrections’ Inmate Database.

Canton Police Sgt. Stacy Bailey said warrants charging Nuckles with battery under the Family Violence Act and cruelty to children were issued on May 10. Baker said a warrant for Nuckles’ arrest also had been issued by the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office. Officials there did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Evans said she hopes her childhood friend will be remembered for her smile and happiness, and not for how she died.

“She loved life,” Evans said.

Funeral services are Saturday at 2 p.m. at Hickory Log Baptist Church with the Rev. Robert D. Holmes, the Rev. Frank Fitzpatrick and the Rev. Kevin Roach officiating. Burial will be in Cherokee Memorial Park. The wake will be held at on Friday from 6-8 p.m.

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