Man allegedly says he mistakenly shot girlfriend in the head

Left: Deangelo Mitchell (Shelby County Jail). Right: Jyrah Smith (Obituary).

A Tennessee man offered an excuse of mistaken identity for the recent shooting death of his girlfriend, Volunteer State police say.

Deangelo Mitchell, 27, stands accused of one count of murder in the second degree after Jyrah Smith, 23, a mother of three, died from a close-range shotgun blast during the early morning hours on May 23.

The victim was found with a lone gunshot wound to the head, right outside the front door of Mitchell’s second-floor apartment on East Georgia Avenue in Memphis. Inside the apartment, police found one spent shotgun shell, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Memphis-based NBC affiliate WMC-TV.

The defendant, however, was initially nowhere to be seen, police say. Mitchell was arrested after turning himself in later that same day.

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During a custodial interview, the defendant waived his Miranda rights and offered a version of events where he was awakened by voices outside his apartment and knocking on his front door, police said.

Mitchell identified the voices as male and female, according to police.

“[S]o he armed himself with a shotgun,” the affidavit reads.

The affidavit says the fatal shot was fired after some kind of an argument.

When the door opened, the defendant squeezed the trigger, he allegedly said, because he thought he saw “a man with dreads,” according to the court document. Then, without recognizing who he shot, Mitchell said he disposed of the shotgun and left the scene.

“Investigators found no evidence that Mitchell attempted to render aid, and no record that he attempted to call an ambulance,” the affidavit goes on.

The victim, of course, was actually Mitchell’s girlfriend, found by her brother while he was leaving for work, family previously told WMC-TV.

That same brother also told police the defendant had threatened to kill Smith and her three children — ages 1, 3 and 6. The children are currently in the care of Smith’s father.

“She didn’t tell me about this situation, I didn’t even know she was dating this man,” the slain woman’s father told Memphis-based CBS affiliate WREG. “They try to keep their personal life away from me because I’m their dad. I’m not their friend.”

The relationship, apparently fatal, was also relatively new.

“Only thing I do know is that he recently moved in the apartment complex where my daughter actually was staying and they started dating and they were dating for only two months,” Smith’s father told Memphis-based Fox affiliate WHBQ.

The grieving parent also identified the killing as an incident of domestic violence that could have and should have been prevented.

“He also had a bond condition that he broke and he should have been in jail as of right now,” the elder Smith said. “But the system failed. If the system did not fail, I believe my daughter would still be here.”