Police say mother killed 6-year-old son, then self

Columbus police have determined the February shooting of a mother and her child in Oakland Park was a murder-suicide.

Police found Tina Green Hall, 47, and her 6-year-old son Jeremy shot to death Feb. 24 when they responded to their home at the corner of Howe Avenue and Wise Street. The cause of their deaths remained unknown for months, until police determined within the past week that Tina Hall shot her son and then herself, authorities said.

"The case has been closed with a ruling that she died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Lt. John McMichael said. "She, in fact, killed her son, murdered her son."

The determination came from autopsy results and facts revealed during the investigation, McMichael said.

The Muscogee County Coroner's Office received the autopsy results months ago, but the police investigation kept it under wraps, said Malika Hampton, assistant to Coroner Bill Thrower.

"The police just closed their case," Hampton said. "It was determined she shot her son and then shot herself."

John Dugger lives across the street from where Hall and her child once stayed.

He didn't know them, but he often saw Tina Hall cutting the grass on a riding lawn mower.

"She took good care of her property," Dugger said. "She seemed to be an independent person. She took good care of her children, from what I could see."

Dugger said news of the police investigation troubled him.

"It's not a good feeling," he said. "I didn't think anything like that could happen here, and it does give you a sense of caution."

Friends and family said the mother was a supervisor at the Fort Benning Burger King and her son was a student at Key Elementary School.

Though a police report said the two died sometime between Feb. 24, a Friday, and 2:30 p.m. the Tuesday before -- when Jeremy was last seen at school -- McMichael said in February investigators believed the two most likely died the day they were found.

Police talked to Tina Hall's boyfriend Vincent Harris, who found the bodies, and to Tina Hall's ex-husband Jerry Hall, Jeremy Hall's father.

This story was originally published September 11, 2012 at 10:51 PM with the headline "Police say mother killed 6-year-old son, then self."