On the evening of April 19, 2025, 25-year-old Kaalynn Katie Jackson was shot and killed in her home on Derwin Brown Drive in Decatur, Georgia. Jackson, an African American special education teacher and cheer coach at Hamilton E. Holmes Elementary School in East Point who was completing a master’s degree in special education, had hosted a family reunion earlier that day. After the gathering ended, a roommate heard Jackson and her live-in girlfriend, 24-year-old Janai Colbert, arguing, followed by a single gunshot. Jackson stumbled into the roommate’s room and said Colbert had shot her before collapsing; she died during surgery at Grady Memorial Hospital from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

DeKalb County police arrested Colbert at the scene. Court records referenced a history of domestic violence in the relationship. Colbert was charged with malice murder and held in the DeKalb County Jail without bond. Jackson’s family and her school community have publicly mourned her death; funeral services were held with attendees wearing pink and white.

If anyone knew Kaalynn Jackson, her household, or has information about the events that night, please share what you know.