CARROLLTON, Ga. — Anna Jones' former teacher, Stephanie Hodges, said she still hasn't processed the death of her former student.
"I just cried. I cried all day. And I tried to get to church this morning. I had to leave as it is just really hard," she told 11Alive's Karys Belger Sunday.
Jones, 18, was killed Friday night when a man shot in the direction of the parked car she was sitting in. The teen had just graduated from Mount Zion High School in Carrollton, Georgia. She was due to start college at the University of West Georgia in the fall.
"She was going to be a teacher and she would have been amazing because she was so good with kids," Hodges said.
47-year-old Richard Sigman is in custody in connection with her death. According to Carrollton Police, Sigman got into an argument at Leopoldo's Pizza in Adamson Square. Police said security asked him to leave and he made his way to a nearby parking deck.
Sigman then started shooting in the area and struck Jones who was sitting in a parked vehicle, authorities said. Friends quickly drove her to the hospital where she died.
The pizzeria is two doors down from Heaven in Your Home, a restaurant owned by LaToya Grimes. She said she never expected this to happen.
"It was a shocker because you don't hardly hear stuff happen like that around here... And on top of that, I know the guy that did it," Grimes said.
Sigman was previously a professor at the University of West Georgia where Jones was due to begin classes in the fall. He is facing three counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and murder charges. He was booked into the Carroll County Jail. Grimes said she knew a different side of Sigman.
"He was just a real nice guy, trying to help me. I have a nonprofit with the homeless here, so he was just trying to reach out to help me in there," she said.
Grimes also said she is praying for Jones' family after hearing what happened.
"I'm really feeling my heart goes out for her mom and her family because I'm a mom myself, and I just kind of imagine how they're feeling," she said.