Cumming Man Arrested Following Shooting Death In Nearby Milton

Update 10:35 a.m.: A 25-year-old Canton woman is dead after a shooting near Birmingham Crossroads in Milton Sunday afternoon, and the father of her two children is in custody.

Christopher M. Erdman, 25, of Oak Grove Way in Cumming, has been arrested in the shooting of Shannon Lawrence, according to Capt. Shawn McCarty of the Milton Police Department. Lawrence was shot four times in the face and neck in the parking lot of a mostly empty shopping center at 15780 Birmingham Highway.

McCarty said the couple had two children together but never married. They used the shopping center as the drop-off point when exchanging custody of the children.

McCarty said it was unclear whether the children were at the scene during the shooting.

Milton police responded to a call at 2:02 p.m. on June 5 of shots being fired at 15780 Birmingham Highway, according to Shawn McCarty. When they arrived, they found shell casings in the parking lot along with a pool of blood.

McCarty said that police were later notified  by hospital staff that the suspect and the victim were at Northside Hospital-Forsyth. Erdman apparently drove them to the hospital. By the time police arrived at the hospital, Lawrence was dead from gunshot wounds.

Erdman is in Fulton County Jail, being held for murder in connection with the shooting death.