Just hours after taking her first steps, the life of one-year-old Jaquari Bennett was tragically cut short in a violent chain of events that began in Covington, Georgia. Jaquari was a young Black female whose family would remember her brief life through a video of that milestone, captured shortly before she was killed on the morning of June 12, 2022.
The ordeal began late on the night of Saturday, June 11, when Jaquari's father, 38-year-old Darian Javaris Bennett, arrived at the family's home on Chandler Field Drive. Inside, he shot and killed Jaquari's mother, 38-year-old Keashawn Washington, and shot her grandmother, 63-year-old Peggy Burns, in the head. Before being rushed to the hospital in critical condition, Burns was able to tell deputies that Bennett was the shooter and that he had taken his daughter. Two of Washington's other children, who were also in the home, were physically unharmed.
Bennett fled with Jaquari in a black Honda Accord, prompting authorities to issue an Amber Alert.
The search came to a devastating end the next morning in a different county. Around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 12, Bennett called 911 from Clayton County, threatening to kill his daughter and himself. Police used GPS to track his phone to the Riverdale United Methodist Church. As officers arrived, they heard gunshots coming from behind the building. In a wooded area behind the church, they discovered the bodies of both Darian Bennett and his daughter, Jaquari.
Investigators determined that Darian Bennett had shot and killed his daughter before turning the gun on himself. The case was a murder-suicide that followed a documented history of domestic turmoil. Family members stated that Keashawn Washington had made many attempts to get away from Bennett. "She did call out she did call for help," her cousin Larry Brooks said. Washington had called the police multiple times and obtained a restraining order.
Records showed that Bennett had been arrested the previous July for making harassing phone calls and threatening to kill Washington, which resulted in a court order for him to stay away from her. With the death of the sole suspect, the investigation into the deaths of Jaquari Bennett and Keashawn Washington was closed as of June 2022.
