Atlanta charity worker fatally shot in head while driving home

Anyone with information about the killing is asked to contact Atlanta police detectives.

A metro Atlanta grandmother was shot and killed early Sunday morning while driving home from work, authorities said.

Beverly Jenkins worked at the City of Refuge, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless mothers get back on their feet in Atlanta.

Credit: Channel 2 Action News

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Credit: Channel 2 Action News

Beverly Jenkins, 49, was driving her minivan home around 12:30 a.m. after working her shift at the City of Refuge, where she worked helping homeless mothers, Channel 2 Action News reported.

While driving near the intersection of Hopkins Street and Westview Drive, a bullet hit Jenkins in the head, causing her to careen off the road into an embankment, according to an Atlanta police report obtained by AJC.com.

Someone called 911 after seeing her vehicle run off the road. Jenkins was dead when police arrived, the report said.

Now her husband, children and grandchildren are mourning her death. Two heart-shaped balloons were placed at the spot where she died, Channel 2 reported.

“We’re just at a loss right now trying to understand how this could happen and how people could lose humanity,” family friend William Miller told the news station.

Mother and grandmother Beverly Jenkins (far right) was shot and killed in Atlanta, police said.

Credit: Channel 2 Action News

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Credit: Channel 2 Action News

Miller spoke to Channel 2 on behalf of Jenkins’ family because relatives were not ready to speak.

“This is what she gave to all of us — a love and connection that just fundamentally lifted us all up, and for that to be taken from us in some heinous act of violence ... it has really shaken everyone to the core,” Miller said.

A similar fatal shooting took place about two miles nearby only eight days earlier. Rodrigo Castillo, 33, of Mableton, was found fatally shot in the head while in his vehicle on I-20, police said.

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Police have said the two incidents aren’t related, and active investigations are ongoing for both incidents.