A man was killed when he crashed head-on into a fire truck responding to a shed fire behind his Jones County home Tuesday.
But, hours later, his on-and-off-again girlfriend came out of his house with stab wounds she said he inflicted, the sheriff said.
Michael Snider, 57, was killed in the crash on Ga. 49 near Oak Valley Drive, said Jones County Sheriff Butch Reece.
The bizarre turn of events began shortly after 9 a.m. when the sheriff’s office got a call about a shed on fire at the Snider residence on Morris Stevens Road, Reece said.
A few minutes later, the sheriff’s office received a call of an accident on Ga. 49 involving a fire truck and a tire service truck, he said.
Arriving sheriff’s deputies determined the wreck victim, Snider, was also the owner of the shed on fire, Reece said. Snider owned his own tire service business and kept tires in the shed.
Snider was driving down Ga. 49 when he crossed the center line and hit a Jones County fire and rescue truck head-on. His tire service truck left the roadway, went down an embankment and caught fire.
Snider was pronounced dead at the scene about 11 a.m., said Jones County Chief Deputy Coroner Stacy Gardner.
The driver of the firetruck, a volunteer firefighter, was taken to the Medical Center, Navicent Health, with non-life-threatening injuries.
“We were assuming that perhaps somebody had called (Snider) and was telling him about the fire and he was gonna to try and turn around in his truck,” Reece said. “He was clearly on the firetruck-side of the road.”
But that line of thinking changed about three hours later, when Snider’s on-and-off-again girlfriend emerged from his house with stab wounds to her chest area, Reece said. Her throat also had been cut.
“She came out and said that he had cut her,” Reece said.
She had not come to the door when deputies had knocked multiple times earlier to see if anyone was inside, including once to try to get a dog some water, Reece said.
The woman was taken to the Medical Center, Navicent Health, and was listed in stable condition, Reece said.
“She should survive,” Reece said. “She was talking.”
The sheriff’s office had been to Snider’s house about 15 times in the last 2-1/2 years on domestic calls involving the on-and-off-again couple, and there had been court orders issued in the past for the two of them to stay away from each other, Reece said.
The incidents remain under investigation.
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