Family upset over no arrests in death of DeKalb County entrepreneur killed at her own business

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga – DeKalb County police say a 35-year-old woman was shot and killed by someone she knew on Moreland Avenue. The family wants this person behind bars.  

Norell Combs says her cousin, 35-year-old Jalisa Abney, was an extremely hard worker and entrepreneur. 

“She’s been in the Army, and she owned two businesses. She had a trucking company, and she also had a tint company where she would wrap cars and put tint on. That’s actually where she was, her place of business, when the murder happened,” Combs said.  

Police say shortly before noon last Wednesday, Abney and a 37-year-old man were shot at the truck lot in the 2900 block of Moreland Avenue, where Abney ran her businesses. 

“My cousin woke up that morning, it was a normal day for her, for all of us, until it wasn’t,” Combs said.  

Combs says she got the text about Abney while she was at work. 

“I got a text message that said Jalisa was shot in the head, and she was at Grady…I live in Columbus, Georgia, about 2 hours away from my family. But I immediately got in the car and drove to Atlanta, drove straight to Grady,” Combs said.  

Abney passed away the next day. 

As days passed, Combs says she grew worried when she didn’t see any information about her cousin’s killing on the news. 

“We paid close attention to the news, and it never popped up. We thought that was really weird, especially being that we know exactly who committed the crime,” she said.  

DeKalb County police confirmed that the suspect knew the victims. 

“What we do know is that she did absolutely nothing to him, and she did not see it coming, and she did not have time to react,” Combs said.  

Combs says they’re trying to be patient with the process, but it’s hard not to see police make an arrest or at least identify the suspect. 

“It seems like an open-and-shut case because we know who it is, most people don’t. We still want to trust the process, but also not fall on the back burner,” Combs said.  

FOX 5 took their concerns to the DeKalb County Police Department, which released a statement in response reading: 

“We do have the suspect identified and are actively searching for him. In order to give our officers and others time to apprehend him before he knows we’re looking for him and has a chance to evade us, we will occasionally hold identifying him to the public. Typically, this is only done for a few days before then releasing his identity to the public for their assistance in his apprehension.”   

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the DeKalb County Police Department.