Suspect in Atlanta recording studio killing caught in Texas

Atlanta police say the man who shot and killed a teenager last month outside his father’s recording studio in Midtown has been arrested in Texas.

Police have had an arrest warrant for 25-year-old Melvin Bardwell for a week or two, said Lt. Keith Meadows, commander of the department’s homicide unit.

Monday morning, police in the Houston area contacted the Atlanta Police Department, saying they had Bardwell in custody, Meadows said.

Bardwell, who is from New Orleans but had been living with his mother in the Tucker area, is awaiting extradition to Atlanta to face a murder charge in the Jan. 24 shooting death of 19-year-old Adair Freeman.

But two Atlanta police detectives will first fly to Houston to attempt to interview Bardwell about the shooting, Meadows said. Police have not yet identified a second suspect who was involved in the incident.

Bardwell was initially identified from an anonymous tip through the Crime Stoppers Atlanta program.

The motive in the shooting was robbery, and police do not believe that Bardwell knew Freeman, Meadows said.

Freeman was shot after he left his father’s recording studio, Hot Beats, to get some ice and other items from a nearby Shell station on Spring Street.