Mother gunned down while holding baby, family say

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - A 21-year-old mother was gunned down while holding her baby. Her family said it was her baby's father who pulled the trigger while wearing a jail ankle monitor.

DeKalb County police said the shooting happened Wednesday in a wooded area behind Education Elevation Children Academy on Snapfinger Park Drive in Decatur.

The family said things were going well for 21-year-old Mic'keya Montgomery despite some setbacks. Her mother died 10 months ago from COVID-19, but she had gotten a job and her own apartment.

Taco Nash (DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office)

Her family said the one thing she had not let go of was Taco Nash, her daughter Khole's father. They said Mic'keya stayed with him out of fear.

Wednesday when she went to pick up the baby after work, Nash popped up with a gun, out of nowhere. Daycare workers even tried to help, to no avail.

"She was saying, ‘No,’ you know and asking for help, yelling out for help and he got into a physical altercation with them (daycare workers) and threaten to kill everybody and so they ended up just having to let... her you know go with him," said Chancierra Coleman, the victim's sister.

The family said police told them the 21-year-old mother ran to a wooded area behind the daycare trying to get away. As she clutched her baby, she was shot and killed.

"She had been holding her because there was blood splatter all over Khloe. She was covered in... covered in blood," Coleman said.

DeKalb County police said a woman was gunned down holding her baby behind a daycare. (FOX 5)

Police arrived minutes later and Nash surrendered. Police have told the family the entire chase and shooting was caught on surveillance video.

The family said Nash shot Mic'keya in Atlanta two years ago. They claim he physically beat her up in March 2020. They also said she had called police on two other occasions, all domestic related.

They say all four times, he was granted bond after police charged him.

"He shot her with my sister witnessing it. He shot at my nephew, getting arrested and let out on bond. Then later holding the baby hostage getting arrested for that being put on the ankle monitor. After that beating her, going to her home beating her, getting arrested again and still being released in another county with an ankle monitor on his leg," the victim's aunt Pamela Foster said.

They called this a classic case of the judicial system failing a victim.