Ga. Hospital Shootings Suspect Charged With Murder

Published January 7, 2012 9:36PM (EST)

FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. (AP) — A 59-year-old Tennessee man has been formally charged with murder in the fatal shootings of his wife and mother-in-law in the waiting room of a Georgia hospital.

A judge in north Georgia on Saturday charged James Benson of Chattanooga, Tenn., the day after police say he killed the two women at Hutcheson Medical Center.

Benson did not speak during the brief hearing. Police say he worked as a security guard and had no criminal record, but was separated from his wife and had been seen fighting with her earlier in the week.

The suspect's wife, 56-year-old Mary Benson of Rossville, Ga., was killed Friday evening along with her mother, 76-year-old Charlotte Johnson.

Authorities said Benson drove to the police station and turned himself in after the shootings.


By Salon Staff

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