Background: News footage of the Birmingham, Ala. neighborhood where LaVentrice Denise Tolbert was killed on Sept. 24 (WBRC). Inset: LaVentrice Denise “Vent” Tolbert (Facebook).
An Alabama woman who was fatally shot by her boyfriend in a murder-suicide had hinted to her sister that she was in trouble before she died.
LaVentrice Denise Tolbert, 40, was shot by her boyfriend, Tony Dewayne Davis, 35, before he turned the gun on himself just before midnight on Sept. 24. By the time officers from the Birmingham Police Department arrived after hearing reports of a woman shot inside a house on Kiser Road, Denise Tolbert was already dead.
After lingering for two days, Davis ultimately died from his self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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Reporting from Al.com included details from inside the home, where another resident had heard the gunshot while she was in bed. When she went downstairs to investigate, she came across Davis, who was holding a gun to his head. He reportedly told the woman that he was not going back to jail.
Sgt. LaQuitta Wade, the Public Information Officer with the Birmingham Police Department, told Al.com that Davis shot Denise Tolbert before turning the gun on himself. Wade said that there were multiple people inside the home at the time, but no one else was injured.
Al.com spoke to Denise Tolbert’s sister, Monique Tolbert, who said that the seven-year relationship between the couple had been “abusive from the jump.” She recalled a conversation with her sister that they had two days before the killing.
“She told me, ‘When I leave, you will be the one to plan my funeral,'” Monique Tolbert told Al.com. “She wanted me to be strong.”
She continued, “I told her that’s not something I wanted to talk about. I went inside, and she hugged me and told me she loved me.” Two days later, she said, “I got the worst phone call of my life.”
Monique Tolbert told Al.com, “I want to tell anyone else in this situation to seek help, talk to somebody, let them know what’s going on.”
