Decatur man accused of trying to murder girlfriend

DECATUR — A Decatur man on pretrial release after denying charges he battered his girlfriend is now facing new charges he tried to shoot her to death.

Kieshawn L. McGee, 33, is described by police as flying into a rage after finding the 27-year-old victim, the mother of two of his children, had been texting another man.

A sworn affidavit filed by the Decatur Police Department said McGee punched the victim in the face just before she left for work Wednesday morning.

The affidavit, signed by Officer Christopher Skalon, said the terrified victim, afraid of what McGee might do, had earlier called her aunt. The 42-year-old woman came to her niece’s home in the 1500 block of North Woodford Street to collect several young children in order to keep them safe.

The aunt is quoted as telling police that, before she left, she saw McGee “getting in the (victim’s) face and threatening her. “... She heard Kieshawn state something similar to ‘I’m going to shoot you, (expletive). I’m going to kill you,’” Skalon said.

Police say McGee tried to prove as good as his threat after the victim drove off to work. She is quoted as telling officers she was stopped for a red light on East Garfield Avenue when she saw McGee pull up next to her.

“(The victim) stated Kieshawn raised a black handgun and began shooting at her,” Skalon said. He then fled as the shaken woman called the police. Officers who inspected her car found two bullet holes: one in the hood which went on through the windshield and another where a bullet had shot straight through the windshield.

Officers using the city’s FLOCK surveillance camera system tracked down McGee’s vehicle within an hour and found it parked outside a house in the 600 block of South Oakland Court.

Police surrounded the building and Skalon said they then heard the sound of a single gunshot followed by the sight of McGee climbing out a back window; he was arrested and in custody by 8:40 a.m.

A search by officers later discovered a dismantled 9mm semi-automatic Glock pistol taken down into three pieces with an extended magazine and stuffed inside the home’s attic. Skalon said the process of dismantling a Glock pistol required pulling the trigger, and McGee had failed to unload it in his haste to take the weapon apart and hide it.

“... It appeared the firearm was not made safe prior to the user pulling the trigger to remove the slide, thus recklessly shooting a bullet through the house,” said Skalon, who also noted the home was occupied by a 22-year-old woman at the time.

Police also found a spent shell casing in the vehicle McGee had been driving as well as a compartment in the dashboard which held two loaded magazines, an empty magazine and a speed loader.

McGee was arraigned Thursday in Macon County Circuit Court, his case the fifth felony crime logged so far in 2025. He is facing charges of attempted murder, the aggravated discharge of a firearm and the aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Judge Rodney Forbes warned the defendant that the penalty range for the attempted murder charge is from 26 to 50 years in prison, with some kind of custodial sentence mandatory upon conviction.

McGee appeared before the same judge Sept. 25 pleading not guilty to two earlier charges of domestic battery involving the same victim; he had been granted pretrial release on that occasion with one of the conditions being to have no contact with the victim.

The defendant had tried to win pretrial release again on Thursday, defense attorney Fallon Conner arguing her client had a total of five children to look after and needed to be home.

“It’s the position of the defendant that he can be placed on home confinement with electronic monitoring that would prevent any threat to the victim or anyone in the public,” said Conner.

But Forbes said McGee posed too great a danger to the victim and society and wasn’t getting released from jail this time. He noted the seriousness of the new alleged offences and the fact that McGee had a “lengthy criminal history” which includes a prior conviction for the aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

McGee is now due back in court Jan. 15 for a preliminary hearing when he will enter formal pleas to the new charges. As he left the courtroom Thursday afternoon, family members in the public gallery called out to him “We love you, son.”