Northwest Rankin teacher shot and killed; daughter arrested for murder
Published 11:11 pm Tuesday, March 19, 2024
- Ashley Smylie, a teacher at Northwest Rankin Middle School, was shot and killed in her Brandon home on Tuesday. Her teenage daughter was arrested for the crime.
BRANDON — A Rankin County teenager is in custody after allegedly killing her mother and shooting her stepfather on Tuesday.
According to Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, 40-year-old Ashley Smylie was found dead in her home on Ashton Way in Brandon by her husband just after 5 p.m.
According to the Rankin County School District, Smylie was a math teacher at Northwest Rankin High School. Her daughter was a student. Smylie previously taught at Warren Central High School.
Bailey said the teenager, Carly Madison Gregg, appeared in juvenile court Wednesday, where a judge certified her as an adult. She was to have an initial appearance Thursday in county court.
Bailey said when his deputies arrived on scene they met with the stepfather of the teen. Bailey said the stepfather was suffering from a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
The stepfather said he arrived home and found Smylie deceased from an apparent gunshot wound inside the residence, and his 14-year-old stepdaughter armed with a pistol.
The man told deputies that the teen shot him in the shoulder. He engaged her physically and took the weapon away from her, at which point the teen ran to the backyard, hopped a fence and fled.
Rankin County deputies and a helicopter from the Mississippi Highway Patrol soon began a search for the team, and she was located at 5:35 p.m. She was taken into custody without incident.
The teen was arrested for murder and attempted murder based on the circumstances and evidence at the scene, Bailey said. Gregg has been transferred to the Rankin County Adult Detention Center. She has been given a bond of $1 million and pleaded not guilty.
The investigation is ongoing.