(EIGHT MILE, Ala.)
According to investigators, sometime last night on Sasser Drive in Prichard, 39 year old Ronald Coleman, Jr and his girlfriend, 39 year old Charmeall Powe began to argue.
It was an argument that was so intense, it turned violent.
And when a knife was produced, the argument turned deadly.
"It's going to be a murder suicide that occurred here this morning," says Police Chief Jimmy Gardner.
Police aren't yet revealing who killed who, but they do verify another troubling fact... that Coleman's two children, ages 6 and 7, were in the house overnight and may have witnessed some, if not all, of the horrific event.
"And the two young persons witnessed and observed the domestic," says Gardner, "they went and got in the bed, went to sleep, got up, didn't want to miss school this morning and went in and advised a neighbor as to what had taken place in the home."
That neighbor tells Local 15 News that he went back to the house with the children and found Powe dead in one room and Coleman dead in another.
Friends of Coleman say he just recently opened a store on the Belt Line of 65 called Mardi Gras Explosion.
And it should come as no surprise that the Coleman Family has been involved with the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association for years.
As a member of MAMGA, William Dotch has worked along side of Ronald Coleman, Jr. and his father, Ronald Coleman Senior, who has served as president of the organization. He says Coleman Jr had just attended a MAMGA meeting last night and had recently held a discount shopping night for the krewe at his store. He says the krewe will pray for the family.
"It's not gonna heal it tomorrow," says Dotch, "it's not gonna heal it next week. It's gonna take time for all of us to put this together. But I'm sure it's gonna work in a way where we can still go on and do the things we need to do and have to do."
