ATLANTA -- Mass killer Mark O. Barton's first victim in a murderous rampage last week -- his wife, Leigh Ann -- had been worried for her safety but loved Barton's children and wanted to continue to be involved in their lives, her sister said Saturday.
"I'm sorry it happened to my sister but I'm not surprised," said Dana Reeves, Leigh Ann Barton's older sister. "I've felt that this has been coming for a couple of years."When Barton killed his 27-year-old wife with a hammer Tuesday, it was the beginning of the bloodiest mass killing in Atlanta's history.
The next night he killed his two children from a previous marriage as they slept in the family's suburban apartment.
The slayings were discovered Thursday when Barton, a chemist turned day stock-trader, walked into the offices of two brokerage firms and fired randomly at traders and employees. Nine died and 13 were wounded, with four still in critical condition Saturday.
Hours later, Barton killed himself as police pulled over his van.
The first funeral was Friday for Allen Charles Tenenbaum, a 48-year-old father of three. The grocer was gunned down while trading at All-Tech Investment Group.
Dean Mohammed Delawalla, 52, of Atlanta was buried Saturday after a one-hour, 15-minute Islamic service at a funeral home in suburban Lilburn. A spokeswoman for the family, Zeenat Hussain, estimated that 2,000 attended the service, much of which took place on the asphalt parking lot with the media looking on from a nearby hill.
"Dean was a very devoted member of this community," Ms. Hussain said.
Services for Mrs. Barton were scheduled for Sunday.
Reeves, who lives in Macon, said her sister left Barton in October, in part because she was frustrated after supporting her jobless husband for about a year. She worked as a sales representative for a company that sells cleaning supplies.
Reeves said she was wary of Barton after learning that his first wife and her mother had been hacked to death in Alabama in 1993. Barton was the prime suspect in the slayings, but police said they never had enough evidence to charge him.
"There was never really a comfortable feeling with him after that," Reeves said in a telephone interview.
Barton was having an affair with then-Leigh Ann Vandiver at the time of the Alabama slayings. If Barton killed his first wife, Reeves said, her sister knew nothing of it.
"She's just an innocent victim that something terrible has happened to," she said.
Police found Mrs. Barton's body covered with a blanket in a bedroom closet of the apartment.