WALTON COUNTY, Ga. — A Walton County jailer is on paid administrative leave following his girlfriend’s death.
Investigators say Nikki Guined, 20, shot herself after a night of drinking in the Monroe home that she shared with sheriff's deputy Dwight Buchanan, 21.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into the death.
Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Aaron Diamant spoke exclusively to the sheriff about the unusual death investigation.
"I wanted to be as transparent as possible so that there are no questions,” Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman said.
Chapman said that's why he's called in the GBI to investigate Guined's death.
"We don't want to appear that we're hiding anything,” Chapman said.
Guined lived with Buchanan and another couple. Police say that as the group partied with a visitor on the morning of Dec. 10. Guined and Buchanan got into a fight, but reconciled and headed to the bedroom.
According to the police report, as the couple was intimate, “Nikki asked Dwight for his pistol. Dwight was reluctant to do so, but gave Nikki his unloaded pistol. Nikki repeatedly asked Dwight, 'Don't you trust me?' She then asked him to load the pistol. Dwight took the pistol from Nikki, loaded it with a magazine and chambered a round. He then removed the magazine and gave it back to Nikki. She then placed the muzzle of the gun under her right jaw and pulled the trigger."
"Alcohol was involved. You just don't know what led up to it. We don't know what she was thinking,” Chapman said.
Buchanan, who works as a deputy jailer, is now on paid administrative leave while the GBI investigates the incident.
"I can't sit here and say he was at fault in any way, or that he wasn't at fault. I just don't know,” Chapman said. “On my behalf it is different, because it involves an employee and I want to make sure that there’s no questions in anyone’s mind as to what happened in that house that night.”
Diamant was unable to locate Buchanan Tuesday to get his side of the story. Guined’s family declined his request for an interview. However, neighbors did describe the scene outside their homes on the morning of the shooting.
“There were about 20 police vehicles here, cars, trucks, blue lights flashing everywhere,” said Seth Miller, who lives next door. “You never know where you’re at and who’s going do what. I’m sad that it happened.”
Investigators are also looking into the gun’s background, since the sheriff says jailers like Buchanan are not issued service weapons.
WSBTV
