GRIFFIN, Ga. – Griffin police say a former Fulton County sheriff's major accidentally shot and killed his wife while unloading his gun.
Police say 54-year-old Riley Taylor was at a family function when the gun discharged Friday and the bullet struck his wife, 54-year-old Denise Taylor.
Griffin police spokesman Corporal Bryan Clanton says the woman was flown by helicopter to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where she was pronounced dead.
Clanton says no criminal investigation will be done since the shooting was accidental.
Riley Taylor worked at the Fulton County Sheriff's Department under then-Sheriff Jackie Barrett, who has since retired. He retired from a post at the jail as a lieutenant in 2007 after having his rank reduced by Barrett, who was under fire for financial mismanagement of the department and for deficiencies at the jail.
Shortly after Taylor retired, U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob chose Taylor to become the auditor of jail records. Shoob is overseeing the jail in response to a lawsuit that charged it was overcrowded, dirty and dangerous.
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