Three men were killed on Aug. 26, 2010, during a shootout during a child’s birthday party at this house near Dawnville, Ga., in southern Whitfield County.
Staff File PhotoPDF: Initial incident report
A year ago in a middle-class neighborhood in Dawnville, Ga., six siblings gathered at their mother’s house to celebrate their sister’s eighth birthday.
The gathering was a rare, if not forced, effort at family unity. The children had the same mother, Mindy Bullard, but several had different fathers, and the adults usually worked hard to avoid one another when trading the kids on weekends.
The grownups had wanted the day to be about birthday cake and presents. They had imagined the kids laughing and playing together. Instead, the birthday ended in bloodshed.
Now all the children are without their grandfather, Edward Manz III, and three are without their father, Kenny Simonson. Both were shot dead by their mother’s ex-boyfriend, who sprayed the party with bullets before being shot to death himself.