COVINGTON — A man who walked into Liberty Food Mart on Crowell Road on Sunday night and shot and killed his girlfriend is now dead.

Anthony Michael Barrow, 22, of 55 Wellington Trail died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Monday morning following a four-hour stand-off with Covington/Newton County SWAT after he barricaded himself in his home. He was sent to Grady Memorial Hospital’s trauma center in Atlanta via ground ambulance, but died shortly after arrival, according to Newton County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Cpl. Anthony Washington.

Barrow is believed to have followed 19-year-old Audrey Atkinson, whose official address was also listed as 55 Wellington Trail, to Liberty Food Mart shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday.

“She pulled into the parking lot and he confronted her. They had a verbal altercation and words were exchanged back and forth,” Washington said. “She fled inside, the gas station and he followed her inside where he fired several rounds, fatally wounding her.”

Washington said a clerk was also inside the store but was unharmed.

“It was his goal to shoot the victim,” Washington said.

Barrow is believed to have used a handgun in the assault, although Washington declined to give the caliber. He said the woman sustained several wounds “in the torso.”

Washington said from witness reports investigators had tracked down Barrow following the shooting on Crowell Road and went to his home in Wellington Ridge subdivision, off Ga. Highway 162, about 5:30 a.m. Monday.

“There were other family members living there. He was the only one in the house at the time (of the SWAT standoff),” Washington said.

For the next four hours, negotiators tried to talk to him, and Washington said several “distractionary devices” were used in an attempt to get Barrow to surrender. Those devices included simulated gunfire and tear gas, but nothing worked.

“After about four hours, they heard a gunshot and made entry to the house and found him,” Washington said.

The investigation into the incident has been turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and is ongoing.