READ MORE | Murdered gay cop ‘servant to LGBT community’
Just hours after authorities confirmed that a decorated East Point police officer was shot in the head and killed, her former girlfriend was arrested on Tuesday and charged in connection with the murder.
Police Cpl. Crystal Parker, 34, died from a gunshot wound to the head, shot while she was in her Creel Road home in Fulton County on vacation. A family friend asked police to check on Parker and an officer discovered her body on Sunday night.
Early Tuesday evening, the multi-agency Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Danielle Parker, 30, and charged her in connection with the homicide, according to Jim Joyner, a supervisor to the task force that is overseen by the U.S. Marshals.
Fox 5 reported that Crystal Parker and Danielle Parker were domestic partners who split up a few months ago. Joyner told Project Q that Danielle Parker's last name used to be Alexander, but that she changed it. She was arrested at her mother's home on Fairburn Road. WSB Radio reported that Danielle Parker moved out of Crystal Parker's home about a month ago.
A police source told FOX 5's George Franco that Danielle Parker was previously known as Danielle Alexander. She was the domestic partner of Crystal Parker and they broke up a few months ago, the source said.
Joyner said he did not know the details of the relationship between the two woman and referred questions to the Fulton County Police Department, the lead agency in the homicide investigation. A police spokesperson could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.
Parker worked for police department for six years. In 2012, she was named Police Officer of the Year.
UPDATE 9:10 p.m. | In a press conference Tuesday evening, Fulton police hedge at calling the women former girlfriends, despite sharing a last name. The family says they didn't know Danielle Parker too well.
UPDATE 9:21 p.m. | Danielle Parker being escorted into the Fulton County Police Department for questioning.
