Extracted from The Gadsden Times (Gadsden, AL)
Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Woman shot outside her apartment dies from wound

A Columbus, Ga., woman shot last week outside her apartment complex has died, police said.

Sherian Sansom, 62, died late Saturday at a Columbus hospital after she was shot Thursday morning.

Her ex-husband, Jacksonville businessman George Glenn Sansom, 66, was found dead in the yard of his home in Jacksonville the following morning.

George Sansom was found in the front yard on Rochester Road about 7:20 a.m. Friday by a city worker picking up debris, Jacksonville Police Chief Tommy Thompson said.

Sansom had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and it appears he had been there only a short time, Thompson said.

A .22-caliber handgun, believed to be the same weapon used to shoot Sherian Sansom, was found on the ground next to him.

Police in Columbus plan to have the weapon examined this week to see if it is the same weapon used to shoot Sherian Sansom.

A 32-year-old woman and her 8-year-old son told police a man fitting George Sansom's description was in the parking lot and pointed a gun at them. They saw him then hold the gun on Sherian Sansom, and they heard gunshots when they reached their car, police told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

A green four-door car the man was seen driving away in fits the description of the car driven by George Sansom.

The tall, thin man was wearing jeans and some type of head covering.

Columbus Police Department investigators were in Jacksonville on Friday, but have not confirmed that Sansom shot his ex-wife.

Sherian Sansom was a school teacher at Fort McClellan when it closed in 1999, but transferred to Fort Benning, Thompson said.

The couple moved to Columbus and they both lived there until two years ago, when they divorced, Thompson said.

George Sansom moved back to Jacksonville and lived in one of the houses he rented and Sherian Sansom remained in Columbus, where she was a third-grade teacher at McBride Elementary School, part of Fort Benning's school system.