STT. Mother Dies Shielding Her Children as Ex-Boyfriend Opens Fire, Daughter Also Killed

Crystal Williams was only twenty-two years old, but her life already carried the weight of difficult choices, quiet endurance, and a hope that things could still become better.

She was not reckless, and she was not careless.

She was simply young, trying to believe that love could grow into something safe.

For nearly two months, Crystal lived with her ex-boyfriend, Justin Deion Turner, telling herself that patience might soften his anger, that time might calm the tension that often filled the air.

But fear has a way of speaking clearly to those who listen.

And Crystal listened.

She noticed how his moods changed without warning.

She noticed how arguments never truly ended, only paused.

She noticed how control slowly replaced affection.

And somewhere deep inside, she understood that staying was no longer an option.

So Crystal made a decision that many people underestimate in its courage.

She decided to leave.

She reached out to her mother, Danyel Sims, not because she was weak, but because she trusted her.

Danyel was forty-six years old, a woman whose life revolved around her children, whose strength showed not in loud declarations, but in consistency.

She was the kind of mother who answered the phone no matter the hour.

The kind who believed that protecting her children did not stop once they reached adulthood.

To Danyel, Crystal was still her child.

And when Crystal said she wanted to come home, Danyel did not hesitate.

On the morning of September 6, 2020, the day began without warning of the tragedy that would soon unfold.

The sky over Dunwoody, Georgia, looked ordinary.

The apartment complex was quiet, like so many others on a weekend morning.

Crystal gathered her things quickly, her heart pounding, her mind fixed on escape rather than confrontation.

Her younger brother, Malachi, only eighteen years old, was with them.

Another teenager sat quietly in the backseat, unaware that their lives were seconds away from changing forever.

Danyel was behind the wheel of the SUV.

She was focused, calm, determined.

To her, this was not a dramatic rescue.

It was simply what a mother does.

As they pulled away from the apartment complex, there was a brief moment when it seemed they might leave unnoticed.

But then the path ahead closed.

Justin Deion Turner blocked the SUV.

The suddenness of it stole the breath from Crystal’s lungs.

Fear surged, sharp and undeniable.

This was not a conversation.

This was not an argument.

This was a trap.

Turner stepped out, anger written plainly across his face.

Words may have been spoken, but none of them mattered.

Because what followed was violence.

He opened fire.

The sound shattered the morning.

Bullets tore through metal and glass, through plans and futures.

Crystal was struck.

Danyel was struck.

Malachi was struck.

In those unbearable seconds, instinct overtook fear.

Danyel moved.

She placed her body between the gun and her children.

There was no calculation, no hesitation.

Just a mother’s final act of love.

She shielded them with her life.

Crystal died at the scene.

Her mother died trying to save her.

Malachi survived, but with serious injuries that would mark him forever.

The teenager in the backseat survived physically unharmed, though no one escapes a moment like that untouched.

When the gunfire stopped, silence returned.

But it was not peace.

It was devastation.

Police arrived to a scene that told a story no family should ever have to live.

Turner fled, but he did not escape justice.

He was later arrested and charged with two counts of murder and aggravated assault.

But charges, no matter how severe, cannot restore what was taken.

Crystal’s stepfather, Danyel’s husband, would later speak of the emptiness that followed.

Life, he said, was completely changed.

The house felt quieter.

The laughter was gone.

The glue that held the family together had been torn away.

He remembered Danyel as a woman who woke each day with a smile, who carried the family through hardships without complaint.

She was not just a victim.

She was the heart of their home.

Crystal, too, was remembered not for how she died, but for how she tried to live.

She was trying to leave.

Trying to be safe.

Trying to come home.

Malachi would later share that his sister had been actively trying to escape Turner, that she knew the danger and chose to face the uncertainty of starting over rather than the certainty of staying.

That truth matters.

Because Crystal did not die because she stayed.

She died because she tried to leave.

And that reality echoes far beyond this one family.

It speaks to every person trapped in fear.

Every person weighing the cost of escape.

Every person who wonders if anyone will believe them.

Crystal and Danyel were deeply loved.

Their absence carved a permanent ache into the hearts of those who knew them.

Their story is not just about loss.

It is about courage.

It is about a mother’s love.

It is about a daughter’s attempt to survive.

And it is a reminder that behind every headline is a family forever changed.

Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers.

Not as names in a report.

But as lives that mattered.