Real Housewives of Atlanta Co-star Dies in Fight
October 3rd, 2009 by Kelly
Ashley Jewell, also known as A.J. the ex-fiance of Real Houswives of Atlanta cast member Kandi Burruss, was killed in a fight in the parking lot of an Atlanta strip club last night. Police aren’t saying what the fight was about, just that he was “involved in an altercation and struck in the head” by a man named Fredrick Richardson. Richardson has been arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter.
Kandi took to her Twitter account early this morning to express her despair:
I’m about to give my swollen eyes some rest now. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their prayers. I gotta get up and go to my uncle’s funeral. I could never in a million years imagine this happening. Please pray for AJ’s children. That’s who I’m the most concerned for. I’m just in one of those moods where i don’t wanna talk, I don’t wanna be held and told it’s gonna be ok. I just wanna cry myself to sleep, alone.
The second season of Real Housewives of Atlanta followed Kandi and A.J. as they planned their wedding and attempted to raise their collective seven children. Six of those kids are A.J.’s children- six children who are now without a dad.
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I believe he was part owner of the strip club
oh my god that is so horrible and sad. :(
goodness
I’ve been reading about Kandi. She is my favorite on RHOA because she is a true talent (on her own) and a class act. I just read that she adopted AJ’s twin 12 year old girls a while back (even though they had broken up) because Kandi wanted to make sure they had a good female role model. Evidently, the birth mother was “going through some stuff” and could not cope. Who does this?!? It just made me have an even high opinion of this woman.
Here’s hoping she finds peace at this terrible, terrible time. Prayers to all the families involved.
i agree. she was the only person on that show that is real. i hope she is okay.
and why is this relevant???
Why isn’t it relevant? Kandi, the fiance of the person killed is a very successful song writer and celebrity from her success with her former girl group Xscape. It qualifies as celebrity news.
Why is anything on a gossip site “relevant”? Maybe I just wanted to say I am hurting for this woman I don’t know, in a city in which I do not live – on a stupid reality show that is far from relevant. But as I watched this irrelevant TV show, I actually LIKED one of the women. And that woman just lost her uncle and now her ex-fiance. And in reading more about her on this horrible day in her life, I discovered she had taken in two children not her own. Two children of this man who was murdered in a parking lot. She must grieve and help those two girls grieve.
If I happen to find a connective thread and want to share it with other Beet readers, so the eff what?
This post appears to be racist as you’re once again insinuating that most black men hang out at strip clubs and get into fatal fights. You’d have never posted this if he had been a white man. First you crackers put the squeeze on Plaxico Burress and ruined his life, and then you put Michael Vick in prison just for killing a few worthless pit bulls and making a few bucks on the side. It’s time to realize that this is a new world, and we won’t stand for this kind of Uncle Tom bullshit anymore.
I don’t get the racist part of the post. I’ve read tons of news accounts of this story since it broke and I think Kelly was simply posting the news as it appeared in many sources….including from bloggers in the African American community. It was news because he was on a reality show that many gossip lovers watch. I also think it was news because Kandi is so well liked by the fans of RHOA.
Racism can come in many forms. Calling the white community crackers is racist, too. And it is just so last century to be ignorant toward any race. (I’m bi-racial.) However, as I read posts on all those blogs this weekend, I found out that the ugliness is alive and well. Too sad.
It’s pretty easy. If you don’t break the law – even if you don’t agree with the law – you could be prosecuted and could go to prison. If you don’t want to go to jail then just do not break the law. Simple. I never have understood why it is so hard to not break the law.
Obviously, I meant “If you break the law” — I am the typo queen.
Uh, normally I’m annoyed by self-righteous comments, but I’m really just baffled by this one. What in the hell is racist about it?
IM REALLY SORRY FOR YOUR LOST AND I HOPE YOU WILL BE OK I LOVE YOU GURL AND STAY STRONG
I FEEL LIKE THEY’RE PART OF MY FAMILY, THIS HAS REALLY HIT HOME. THIS IS A MOMENT FOR ME. BTU FOR NOW I WANNA SEND KANDI, THE KIDS & THE FAMILY OF AJ MY PRAYERS. AND REMEMBER THAT GOD DOESNT MAKE MISTAKES, PLEASE KEEP UR HEAD UP AND CONTINUE TO LEAD AND GUIDE THOSE GIRLS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. I WILL KEEP PRAYING FOR YOU ALL BECAUSE PRAYER CHANGES….
Why in her twitter post does she call him her uncle? I thought he was her fiancee.
Kandi lost her uncle, too. There are two deaths she is grieving over now.
i am sorry for her lost and may his soul rest in peace. they seem to be happy but god needed him from dum other reasons
you forgot the b in ‘DUMB’
The only one I like is Kandi. I hope she wakes up and sees what Kim really is.