A Georgia deputy is being investigated after his girlfriend allegedly killed herself using his gun.
Nikki Guined, 20, died Dec. 10 in the bedroom of a home she shared with Dwight Buchanan, 21, a jailer in Walton County Jail after shooting herself with a gun that belonged to him.
The two had spent the evening drinking with friends at their home. Police said the couple got into a fight earlier in the evening, but reconciled before going to bed together, WSB TV reports.
Buchanan, 20, told investigators Guined shot herself a short time later while they were in bed.
Guined allegedly asked to see his 9mm-Glock pistol, adding, “Don’t you trust me,” according to a police report obtained by WSB Radio.
Buchanan told investigators he didn't want to give it to her at first. He eventually did hand her the pistol, but he withdrew the magazine so the gun wouldn't be loaded.
Buchanan said Guined repeatedly asked him to load the pistol, until he finally added a round and gave it back to her.
“She then placed the muzzle under her right jaw and pulled the trigger,” Deputy J. Ricks wrote in his report.
Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he believed the Glock was supposed to be a gift to Guined, but admitted it is still not clear whether the shooting was accidental.
The report notes that the couple's house had beer cans scattered about and that Buchanan told investigators Guined had been drinking.
There is no mention of how much alcohol Buchanan ingested in the report, but he did admit he didn't remember what caused their argument earlier in the evening.
“Alcohol was involved. You just don’t know what led up to it. We don’t know what she was thinking,” Chapman said, according to Georgia Patch.
The couple had their share of ups-and-downs based on Guined's social media posts collected by the New York Daily News.
In June, Guined wrote on Twitter: "The hardest feeling is looking at who once was your entire world and just not feeling it anymore.”
However, on the day she died, she posted a photo of herself on Instagram with the caption, “Even when he’s drunk he’s the cutest guy I’ve ever met. #lovehimsomuch.”
Chapman asked for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to handle the case because it involved a member of his agency.
"Anytime a law enforcement officer is involved, the rumors start to fly. So I asked them to come in and look at this so we can get all the facts put out there," he told the Walton Tribune. “At this point the autopsy has been done and there is no question she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. What we just don’t know is what her mental state was. What the GBI is doing is putting the facts together so that this girl’s family can have some closure and takes us out of any finger-pointing situation. We will move on once the GBI is done.”
Buchanan has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the GBI investigation, according to RawStory.com.
Before the incident, he had been employed for 13 months and had a good record, WSB Radio reports.
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