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Thursday, November 12, 2026Nov 12

Two scares in the middle of the night: Another incident preceded Ronald Westbrook shooting death

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photo Jason Westbrook holds his father Ronald Westbrook’s medical I.D. bracelet that he says his father was wearing when the Alzheimer’s patient was shot and killed in the yard of a house in Chickamauga, Ga., on Nov. 27.
photo Ronald Westbrook, 72, was an Alzheimer’s patient who was shot and killed in the yard of a house in Chickamauga, Ga., on Nov. 27., after having wandered about 3 miles from home in the early morning.

A week before he killed a man with Alzheimer’s disease in his backyard, Joe Hendrix and his girlfriend received a scare in the middle of the night.

Around 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 19, the girlfriend was home with her two children when a stranger knocked on the front door, said Hendrix’s lawyer, Lee Davis. Hendrix, 34, was not home at the time.

The stranger demanded to see someone else, someone the girlfriend did not know — evidently, someone who lived at 188 Cottage Crest Court before Hendrix and his girlfriend moved in about three days earlier.

The Walker County Sheriff’s Office has not released the identity of Hendrix’s girlfriend. On Thursday, however, Sheriff Steve Wilson confirmed Davis’ account.

As the unknown man at the front door continued to demand to see the house’s former tenant, Davis said, Hendrix received a call from his girlfriend. He told her to call 911. Hendrix then headed over to the house, but by the time he and deputies arrived, the man at the front door had left.