An apparent murder-suicide July 29 has claimed the lives of two employees of the Atlanta–Fulton County Library System’s South Fulton branch in Union City. The victims were identified as 52-year-old Branch Manager Gladys Dennard and an employee, 31-year-old John Eggleston.
According to police reports, Eggleston, who was working toward a library science degree, shot Dennard just before the branch opened at 10 a.m., then killed himself. The bodies were discovered by another library worker returning from a trip to get coffee. The handgun, which police said belonged to Eggleston, was found inside the library.
“The word given to me was that he was troubled,” Deputy County Manager Keith Chadwell, told the July 30 Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Library Board Chairman Clint Johnson said Dennard had disciplined Eggleston. “It wasn’t anything outstanding,” Johnson explained. “We have people who make mistakes, who are corrected by their managers.”
Dennard had worked for the system for 28 years and has been at the branch since it opened 10 years ago. A single mother, she is survived by two daughters, Jennifer, 16, and Jessica, 21, a student at Atlanta’s Morris Brown College.
The branch, which is open seven days a week and serves about 35,000 residents, will be closed for at least a week, according to AFCPL Director Mary Kay Hooker.
Posted August 5, 2002.