Eleanor Bowles, Buckhead, Atlanta woman stabbed to death at gated community home amid heightened violence in the area amid calls to secede. Antonio Brown arrested.
A 77-year-old grandmother was stabbed to death within a gated community in Atlanta which has repeatedly lobbied to secede from the city as a result of the area’s ongoing violent crime.
Eleanor Bowles was discovered dead by her son at the woman’s garage around 5:30 p.m, Saturday — hours after Antonio Brown, 23, allegedly broke into her Buckhead home and stabbed her in a carjacking gone wrong, officials said.
Police believe Brown broke into Bowles’s garage around 11:30 a.m. and was trying to steal her 2021 Lexus RS350 when she walked in and interrupted the alleged theft.
He then allegedly stabbed her multiple times and took off in her car, police said. The vehicle was tracked and recovered by police Saturday night in DeKalb County.
It remained unclear how Brown gained access to the gated neighborhood, before accessing the family’s $800K valued house.
‘She was my North Star…’
Bowles’s son was coming to visit his mother for the holidays when he arrived at the home on Paces West Terrace Saturday evening and found her lifeless and bloody body in the garage. Police pronounced her dead at the scene.
‘The son came home to visit his mom for the holidays…,’ Atlanta Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said during a press conference. ‘This is not a way that a family should have to spend their holiday season, mourning and grieving a death of a loved one.’
Michael Bowles, Eleanor’s son, described his mother as ‘the North Star in [his] world’ adding, ‘She was a beautiful soul, and she taught me how to approach the world with empathy.’
Brown was arrested Monday and charged with murder, aggravated battery, possession of a knife, elder abuse and hijacking a motor vehicle. He was booked into Fulton County jail.
Authorities said Bowles’ car had been driven to multiple locations after the killing, and that it was located in DeKalb County, which borders Buckhead.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said someone recognized Brown from the photo of a person of interest publicized by officials and called police, leading to his arrest, 11 Alive reported.
‘The killing of Ms. Bowels is understandably rocking our community. My heart aches for these family members,’ Dickens said during a press conference announcing Brown’s arrest.
‘We are living in a war zone in Buckhead,’
He also announced the arrest of a third suspect in the murders of a 12-year-old and 15-year-old last month.
‘I share our community’s outrage and heartbreak,’ Dickens said of the recent tragedies. ‘Let me very clear to those who want to do harm in our community, who want to perpetrate this crimes — if you pull a gun or pull out a knife in our city to hurt, harm or kill someone, you will be arrested and sent to jail.’
Buckhead residents first voiced the notion of secession from the rest of Atlanta in 2008, after a newsletter was circulated proposing that the move could reduce residents’ taxes by 50 percent.
The motion largely fizzled, but was rekindled again in 2021 as a means of curbing violent crime which was growing in the area.
‘We are living in a war zone in Buckhead,’ session advocate and Buckhead resident Bill White told Bloomberg at the time. ‘Shootings and killings, it just never ends.’
As recently as this past May, a non-binding advisory question was included on state’s gubernatorial primary ballot asking Georgians across the state whether or not they wanted to see Buckhead secede from Atlanta.
